How Should I Deal With Intellectual Property
Intellectual property is a subject that has far reaching implications for your business. There are several different types of intellectual property that every business deals with. They include: patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets.
Intellectual Property (IP) laws vary country to country with some countries having strong IP laws while others have little to none. When asking a question about IP, it's important to include the country that you are concerned with.
Patent Copyright Intellectual Property Trademark Canon
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What is the question here? This is very general. There are lots of good specific questions and answers about IP on the site if you do a search. – Susan Jones 13 years ago
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@Susan. Thanks for the comment. This is a canonical Q&A, part of a series of questions and answers that we get periodically. It's intent is to have a list of resources on Answers that is a good place to start looking up the subject. It's suppose to be general. See the canon tag for more details. – Jarie Bolander 13 years ago
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Sorry Jarie. That wan't clear to me looking at the question. Good idea though. I wonder if people will actually bother to read them. It would be nice to find a solution to answering the same questions over and over! – Susan Jones 13 years ago
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@Susan. No worries. People have been reading them. We try and put these together so there is a least a starting point. So far, it's been pretty good. – Jarie Bolander 13 years ago
1 Answer
One of the most popular and relevant questions and answer to budding entrepreneurs has to deal with Ownership of works created on your own time. This is actually a complex question because the answer has a lot to do with where you live and your employment contract.
As with anything of a legal nature, make sure to contact a lawyer for specific advice.
Some Other Intellectual Property Questions Worth Reviewing
- What to do if some steals your idea : Explains an idea someone had that he thinks Google stole and what he should do about it.
- A discussion about Trademarks : Asks a good question about registering trademarks in different countries
- Patenting of Software : A discussion about algorithms and if they are patentable.
- Joint Development and IP : How to setup ownership of IP when software is jointly developed.
- Copyrighting A Marketing Idea : It's a specific question but the answers point to a great summary of the different types of IP.
- What to do if Someone Violates Your Copyright : A real world example of someone getting a blog post ripped off and what to do about it.
- User Interface Protection : Are user interfaces copyrighted material and can you copy them.
- How to File a Patent : Gives advice on filing patents and what's patentable.
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Great work. One piece missing, which is actually the main mistake that people here make, is using outsourcing without proper copyright assignment. So they don't actually own the code written for them... – Alain Raynaud 13 years ago
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Thanks. That's a good point. Is there an answer about that somewhere or should we just add it? – Jarie Bolander 13 years ago
