How do I protect my Idea.

[wrenjosh]

What is the name of your state? OK

A few months ago I thought I had a great idea for a tv station; an all reality tv network. just last month fox started a new network call real (channel 250 directv) I assume the cogs had been turning long before that but you can imagine how i felt after everybody had told me it was a dumb idea and a major corporation goes ahead and does it.

So what do I do to protect my ideas? patent, trademark, or copyright? or can ideas for tv stations even be protected? I don't think I'll ever have the means to go through with any of my ideas but if somebody else decided to it'd be nice to be compensated for them using my idea.

 

[divgradcurl]

What is the name of your state? OK

A few months ago I thought I had a great idea for a tv station; an all reality tv network. just last month fox started a new network call real (channel 250 directv) I assume the cogs had been turning long before that but you can imagine how i felt after everybody had told me it was a dumb idea and a major corporation goes ahead and does it.

So what do I do to protect my ideas? patent, trademark, or copyright? or can ideas for tv stations even be protected? I don't think I'll ever have the means to go through with any of my ideas but if somebody else decided to it'd be nice to be compensated for them using my idea.

Ideas alone cannot be protected, other than keeping them secret. If the idea is "useful," then it may be patented as an invention. If the idea is creative, like what you are describing, then you can protect the creative aspects under copyright. However, the "idea" itself cannot be protected.

So if you had an idea for an all-reality network, you could potentially protect any creative aspects -- such as the songs you might play, the order in which you might play the different shows, etc. -- under copyright. However, the "idea" of an all-reality network is probably not protectable. And, even if it were, copyright protects against copying -- if someone else comes up with the same idea independently, you can't assert your copyright against them. Copyrights are not like patents -- if two or more people come up with the same creative thing independently, they are all entitled to a copyright.

So, any specific, creative aspects of your idea you might have, by all means write them down so that they are "copyrighted" -- you might even wish to register the copyright. But remember, ideas themselves caqnnot be copyrighted or protected (other than by keeping them secret), and copyrights cannot be enforced against someone who comes up with something completely independently of your ideas.