Intellectual property and copyright etc

Mercutio

Mercutio

Mercutio

Soldato
Joined
11 Jun 2003
Posts
5,245
Location
Sheffield, UK
If I had an idea a few years ago (13 in fact) and have proof I had the idea first (stamped final year dissertation sat in the university library) do I have any legal recourse to do a (small) money grab against a company that have since come up with a product based on my idea? It's nothing that's going to effect the world as we know it ("I CAME UP WITH SMARTPHONES!!!" or similar) but it's probably making the company selling it a rather pretty penny now.

No copyright etc was entered (unless the uni does something with it as a matter of course) no patent or anything else, I can just prove I had the idea first.
 
Surely even if this were possible you would have to prove they plagiarised it? Otherwise they could just say "no lol we thought of it first, tehe"
 
Did you have an idea or did you have a working design which was used in a product which you have registered with the patent office?

If it is just an idea, much like - Flying shoes ! then no.

If its the latter then you should have a case. I am guessing it is the former?

You can't patent an idea, you can only patent the execution of said idea.
 
Raymond Lin said:
Did you have an idea or did you have a working design which was used in a product which you have registered with the patent office?

If it is just an idea, much like - Flying shoes ! then no.

If its the latter then you should have a case. I am guessing it is the former?

You can't patent an idea, you can only patent the execution of said idea.
Click to expand...

Fair enough, I figured there would be the extra logical step of needing to take action to protect an idea in the first place before I had a leg to stand on, figured I'd check though.

If I use it in a different way (e.g they used it to protect a website login, I use it to protect a database account login) can I claim "prior art" if they try and attack me for it?
 
I remember thinking back in 2002/3 when Palmtops etc were around that a PDA was pointless without having phone capability. A few years later, we had Sony-Ericsson P910/P990, iPhones, Samsung Galaxy range. They're all PDA phones, even though "smart phone" is today's buzzword for this type of phone. It's just a case that many many people had the same idea as me.
 
Azza said:
At most universities isn't the work that you produce actually theirs?
Click to expand...

Yep, I'm aware I'd have the uni to handle if I wanted to make any kind of claim against my existing work. I'd assume if there was money to be made though they'd be on my side (minus their cut of course).

Edit:

Well, ok, if they thought there was more money to be made standing by me than just selling it to whoever kinda thing.
 
You wouldn't have a recourse if somebody was using the idea now, regardless of whether they "copied" it from you or not.

However, if they have subsequently patented it and you can show that your idea came into the public domain before they did so, their patent is invalid. I'm not sure of the process for getting a patent invalidated though. Also, I'm not a lawyer so you'd need to check all of this, obviously, were you to want to act on it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom