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Creative Leisure News
2677 Ashley Ct.
Tremont, IL 61568
Phone: 309-925-5593
Fax: 309-925-9068
Email: mike@clnonline.com
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Answers to your troubling and tricky legal questions. I Have This Great Idea For ... Here's how to protect yourself. By Eva-Marie Boyd (March, 2004) (Note: Eva-Marie has been a practicing attorney for
approximately 15 years. During that time she has been President of
the Orange County Barristers, President of her law school alumni
association, served on the Orange County Bar Association Board of
Directors for seven years and as chair of the Orange County Bar
Association Legal Referral Committee for three years. She was a
panel attorney for California Lawyer for the Arts and has lectured
for that organization on copyright issues.) Q. How do I protect my idea? A. Ideas in and of themselves are not protectable except under contract law or Unfair Business Practices. Ideas need to be reduced to a product such as a bread slicer or a talking doll to receive the protection of Intellectual Property laws such as patents or copyrights (trademarks protect the name of the product.) If you decide that you want to present the idea to someone else for implementation, this is where the wicket gets sticky. I advise my clients not to sent unsolicited ideas to producers etc. Make an appointment and come armed with a written Confidentiality/Non-disclosure Agreement. Do not present the idea until or unless a person authorized to sign on behalf of the company has done so. There are those who will say contracts are meant to be broken. Sometimes it is an economic decision: will my bottom line look better if I "pay" to get out of this agreement? Madonna has recently been sued by someone who alleges he sent her the idea for the movie, Swept Away. Therefore, be sure that there is an attorney-fees clause in each of these contracts. This makes the decision to opt out more costly (Note: Have any questions regarding copyrights, trademarks, or other business-related legal issues? Your name will not be used. Mail, fax, or email your questions to Eva-Marie Boyd, 1160 Catalina St., Laguna Beach, CA 92651 fax: 949-497-3148; email lawddaw@aol.com. To read previous entries in this series, click on the title in the right-hand column.) xxx |
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