Intellectual Property Law

Can intellectual property rights protect an idea?

I know they can protect other things, like images or names, but can they protect ideas?

Public Comments

1. Depends what that idea is, but yes, sometimes.
2. No, only specific depictions of that idea. Face it, is any idea really new? And can you determine whether others have already had the same idea? So you cannot copyright (for instance) the IDEA of a war story, but you can copyright the specific actions and words used. It can be a gray area, especially in something like music, where a potential copyright suit can flow around issues like meter and rhythm, and involve questions of how much of the piece is similar. But in general, an idea which is expressed in different words or a different form would not violate copyright.