Intellectual Property.
What exactly is it? And why, in this day and age, is it so important? Intellectual Property (IP) is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which property rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law. Under intellectual property law, owners are granted certain exclusive rights to a variety of intangible assets, such as musical, literary, and artistic works; discoveries and inventions; and words, phrases, symbols, and designs. Common types of intellectual property include copyrights, trademarks, patents, industrial design rights and trade secrets in some jurisdictions (thank you, Wikipedia).
I'm no expert on the topic, that's what an IP Lawyer is for, but I can say that intellectual property is a murky subject. The idea that you can (and need to) formally protect your ideas is quite scary to everyone from the budding entrepreneur to the corporate giant. Action must be swift to protect good ideas; ideas can be stolen just like anything else. And a stolen idea doesn't gather fingerprints or DNA evidence.
I met with an IP Lawyer yesterday and we discussed the issues related to my company. As a web-based innovation, nothing I have can be formally protected through IP law with the exception of the tangibles (i.e. my logo, slogan, etc). With that in mind, I am facing a race to launch. I am currently building a website in my spare time and plan on launching ASAP. It's a dog-eat-dog world and those with the best marketing and customer base are the most successful. Websites launch; imitators quickly follow.
The recent film, The Social Network, http://www.thesocialnetwork-movie.com/, brings to light the risk involved with intellectual property. One of the biggest social revolutions in the history of the WORLD (if facebook were a country it would have the third largest population in the world) came about because of a controversial IP battle. I thoroughly enjoyed the film, but in watching it, I couldn't help but feel a slight fear that my idea could be easily stolen.
I am currently doing everything in my power to prevent that from happening. Look for my site to launch soon.
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