An Idea Ripe for the Taking

image: Tiago Daniel
We all have ideas at one time or another. Some are good, some are bad and most are rather mediocre. And then, there are those few that are brilliant - at least we think so. But, what happens when your brilliant idea shows up as being thought of by someone else? Or worse, they're making money off of it and you're not? What do you do?

It's actually not a very simple question.

While the law is breathtaking in the breadth of areas that it covers, it's not always immediately obvious just where a perceived wrong fits in. Theft of an idea is one of those things that may be an exercise in fitting a square peg in a round hole. Perhaps surpisingly, none of the areas of intellectual property law that our firm practices - trademark or copyright - provides any amount of assistance.

The Copyright Law is very clear that ideas are not protected (and neither are procedures, processes, systems, methods of operation, concepts, principles, or discoveries.) Copyright protects only the expression of that idea. If ideas were covered, no one would be able to paint a picture of a bowl of fruit or write a play about relationships because there would be that one person who had already claimed the copyright in those ideas. The world would be a dull place indeed.

Should someone decide to paint a bowl of fruit, the copyright law will protect the expression of that painting: the manner in which the fruit is arranged, the lighting, the draping used, the style of the painting (abstract? modern? traditional?) and all of the other factors that go into making that particular painting unique. Indeed, the law itself only provides protection to original works of authorship. How can an idea to paint a bowl of fruit be original?

Trademark law also is no help. It is only interested in the mark that you use to sell your idea. It could care less what the item actually is. (Patent law, of course, would be mentioned as a possible contender. However, that is for a blog other than ours.)

Perhaps ideas can have no owners and instead be recognized by society as open to all for their use and expression. Now that is a novel idea.