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copyright laws?

M

morkus64

Diamond Member
Got a question... if i have an idea for a product on my website, but state that the idea is my creation and that it may not be used without my express written permission, am i protected? I'd assume that if it came down to it, many people could testify that the idea was mine and was on my site at such and such date, but is there anything else i need to do to protect myself?
 
Ideas usually must be patented not copyrighted.

Specific expressions of ideas like "Babylon 5" are copyrighted, but that doesn't prevent someone else from using the same idea to create "Deep Space Nine."
 
If you have an idea on how to do something or an idea for a product, you need to apply for a patent, copyright law is not in play. If you are serious about it, you need to contact a patent attorney to get some help through the patent process. Its not cheap, and it can take a while, but ultimately it can net you a lot of money if you really do have a good idea.

Copyright law is meant to protect an expression on ony kind of media. For example, if you write a program, you can copyright it to protect it from being used by someone else as their own or without your permission. Patents are meant to cover an idea, a way of doing something or an invention. For example, if you build a new engine that runs on air, you can patent it. If you write an article about your engine, you would copyright that article.
 
Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
Ideas usually must be patented not copyrighted.

Specific expressions of ideas like "Babylon 5" are copyrighted, but that doesn't prevent someone else from using the same idea to create "Deep Space Nine."
Click to expand...


thank you... for the only useful reply in this entire thread.

I checked, and apparently a design patent protect the ornamental and aesthetic aspects of the design, while a utility patent protect the functional aspects.
 
Originally posted by: morkus64
A set design, even if the set is not built, so long as there is a rendering, a model, some sort of documentation, is protected by copyright.
Click to expand...
A set design is an artistic work not a "product."

Say your idea is for an umbrella. You can copyright a specific design for the fabric (say a chalk butterfly on navy blue), but you can't copyright the umbrella itself. The engineering design for the umbrella would need a patent.

If you misspoke and meant "graphic design" instead of "product" then yes you can copyright a design.

Edit:
I checked, and apparently a design patent protect the ornamental and aesthetic aspects of the design, while a utility patent protect the functional aspects.
Click to expand...
Interesting, that's a third situation I hadn't considered, the design patent would attempt to protect against imitations more broadly than a copyright of one specific design. Much harder to get than the copyright though.
 
Originally posted by: morkus64
Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
Ideas usually must be patented not copyrighted.

Specific expressions of ideas like "Babylon 5" are copyrighted, but that doesn't prevent someone else from using the same idea to create "Deep Space Nine."
Click to expand...


thank you... for the only useful reply in this entire thread.

I checked, and apparently a design patent protect the ornamental and aesthetic aspects of the design, while a utility patent protect the functional aspects.
Click to expand...

Not sure using the comparison of Babylon 5 and Deep Space Nine is valid here. The idea behind space stations existed well before either of these were created. Having communities on such also existed in science fiction well before either of these shows. That, plus the fact that the shows plots were actually not really that similar other than the fact that a communtiy of people lived on a space station would be a hard case to prove that one had violated any copyrights. A copyright is used to protect an ideas creation and to a furhter extent that it's uniqueness belonged soley to it's creator.

 
another question to add to the discussion, along the lines of the first... but about poetry. Basically, so far as i can understand the copyright law, just the act of creating it and setting it down on paper gives me copyright, correct? registering it would be good, but is not necessary to protect it?
 
Originally posted by: morkus64
another question to add to the discussion, along the lines of the first... but about poetry. Basically, so far as i can understand the copyright law, just the act of creating it and setting it down on paper gives me copyright, correct? registering it would be good, but is not necessary to protect it?
Click to expand...
You can collect additional damages if a work is registered before someone infringes it. I believe you need to display copyright notices prominently to collect full damages, but I could easily be wrong. The .gov site for copyrights will probably have an FAQ on this.
 
Here's an "idea" - if you have a product idea that you wish to protect, how about NOT posting it on the internet for all the oh-so-honest people on the planet to see/copy/copyright/patent?
 
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