If I have an idea and do not want to copyright or go through the patent process is there an option?

Answer 1

You know that you automatically get a Copyright when you write something, correct? There is no formal process? I think you are thinking of trademarking instead of copyright. Anyway, yes, you could move ahead without any protection. And as long as you are not infringing on someone else's copyright, trademark, or patent, you will be OK- that is until someone else legally takes your idea and claims it as their own and patents it, and then they make all the profits and sue you for any that you made from stealing their patented idea.

Answer 2

(1) Copyrights only protect "expression" -- not the underlying IDEA. So, you can write directions on how to go about a process, but if someone just goes about that process (without copying the words you used) that's not copyright infringement. To get copyright protection on a piece of expression, you just have to fill out a few forms and pay a few dollars. There's very little review. You can get the forms at http://www.copyright.gov (if you're in the U.S.). BUT you have copyright as soon as you've reduced your expression and it's "fixed in a tangible medium of expression." Registration, however, is a prerequisite to suit and a prerequisite to "statutory damages" (basically a penalty per infringement if someone copies the work), so it's very advantageous to register early.

(2) Patents provide protection for "useful articles" -- this includes inventions, processes, methods, business systems. These can take thousands of dollars to prosecute, as you have to prove that your invention is "novel" and usualy requires an attorney with scientific knowledge to assist you. However, with your patent, you can exclude everyone from producing, selling, or even utilizing the invention without a license from you (but only for 20 years). This also requires public disclosure and quite a bit of time and money, but if your idea is really marketable, the best way to protect "an idea" or "an invention."

(3) If you don't want to go through that process, KEEP YOUR IDEA SECRET. You can have a "trade secret," which is anything that has been treated as a secret, been kept secret from competitors, and has value to a business. (The Coca-Cola formula, for example, is a trade secret, as is the Colonel's Original Recipe at KFC.) However, you must be VERY CAREFUL with the secret -- disclosure to one outside person may destroy all protections you have in it and make it valueless. You need to get confidentiality agreements with everyone you share the secret with, hold it back from any non-essential personnel at your business, and take other steps to protect the idea. You don't have to "register" your secret (of course that would no longer make it a secret) but you do have to protect it.

Hope that helps.

Answer 3

Yes, speed.

Copyright and patent helps protect an idea. If you can grab the market fast enough, the patent and copyright will not matter too much since you have already dominated the market and made your money.

iPod - who cares if it was patented, it dominated the market real fast. Everyone else is playing catchup.

Answer 4

Mail it to yourself through snail mail and don't open it. Only let a lawyer open it. The post mark gives the date which it was mailed and it's almost as good as a copyright.

Answer 5

nicely i might advise which you video tape each and every thing which you're doing... data. actual data. the letters factor is a stable concept too. So are you seeking to make money, or you prefer to be favourite for this concept? if its money, then sell it. yet remember you will might desire to instruct if any case somebody stoled you r concept. besides. Will they actually understand what to do with it? each and every concept is distinctive. stable success

Answer 6

It depends on wether or not it is a totally original idea or an improvement to an existing one.

Answer 7

You could let someone else do it....