Below you will find some information concerning the protection of ideas.

However, we suggest you to contact an Indutrial Property advisor to obtain more precise and detailed information about the protection of your idea.

An idea itself cannot be protected, the way it is expressed can be protected : innovation, trademark, literary or artistic creation, ...

Par example someone teaching a correspondence literature course on the Internet cannot prevent someone else to create a similar website to do the same thing.

However, if the teaching method is completely innovative or it has an original name referring to the concept, they can be protected by copyright as far as the method is concerned, and by trademark rights as far as the name is concerned.

Generally, the author of an idea should keep evidence proving that he/she is the one who created that idea since :
that idea has not been developed yet and that he/she feels the obligation to divulge it, to potential investors for example ;
or he/she wants to assert his/her copyright if the idea concerns a literary or artistic creation ;
or he/she does not want to divulge a trade secret by depositing a patent ;
or he/she wants to assert his/her right to use an invention in a personal capacity, even if a patent has been already deposited by someone else ;
or finally he/she wants to have the possibility to claim the ownership of an invention.

Thanks to Private Patent® you will have a fixed date of deposit as well as a technical and legal background to protect your idea.

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