7 Ways I.T. Professionals (and Others at Large) Can Protect their Ideas from Pirates

Years ago, people suffered from the menace of high robbery incidence, but these days, theft of intellectual materials is more rampant. There is therefore a need for owners of creative works to know how they can protect their works from intellectual thieves (otherwise known as pirates).

Before more, let me establish one fact straight away- an idea is worthless until expressed in a tangible form. That is why this article focuses on what you should take cognizance of in the process of turning your idea to a finished worked.

I pitched on I.T. professionals in this article because theirs is the most difficult to handle. For one, the internet is the most unregulated society and that is where I.T. professionals showcase their works. Secondly, when those works get copied by pirates, millions are lost.

I do not guarantee that your work will not be pirated if you follow the suggestions in this article, but I assure that you will be placed in a better position to establish your ownership and defend your claims against any pirate.

Briefly stated below are seven things you can do to establish the ownership of your works and thereby prevent them from being pirated:

 

• If you are a software developer or you are into programming and coding, embed your name in computer codes that you generate so that if you need to prove ownership, you are not left stammering.

•  Keep the master copy (initial design) of your work. If you have a lawyer, seek his or her counsel for safe custody.

•  If you have support team that is working with you on the task of creating the work, ensure that they sign an agreement which recognizes you or your company as the owner of the work to be invented. Truth be told, it is easier to get your support team to sign such agreement at an early stage than when your work starts to attract millions of hard currencies.  

• Ensure that your support team signs confidentiality agreement so that they are under legal obligation to keep your apparatus secret especially when they choose to move on.  

• When you launch your invented work, remember to mention that the work is your copyright. Simple way to do this is to use the symbol “©” with your name or that of your company and the year the work was invented. For example “©Eyitayo Ogunyemi 2017”.

• Register your ownership of the work with relevant government agency. While this is not what primarily gives you ownership right, it gives a better assurance that the work is yours.  

• Imprint your trademark in the finished work. This makes it easier to establish your ownership in case of dispute. Remember however to first register your trademark with the relevant government agency.

 

After you have established your ownership of the work following the highlighted steps, you can give license to people to use the work in exchange for a token or even figure out other ways to generate money from the use of the work.

Most importantly, do not release your work to the public without first protecting your ownership of it one way or the other.

Eyitayo Ogunyemi