For your own protection, if for no other reason, you need to have a
more substantial understanding of these issues. You may or may not
agree on the level of importance that Dave assigns them in this
particular connection, but they are certainly necessary considerations.
1) When something is shipped, that's nice, but there are still reverse
engineering issues, copying issues as regards interaction, layout,
icons, etc. (Think Windows/Apple suits)
2) Well, ideas are neither copyrightable, nor patentable. Execution
is. But the little piece of stuff (hardware/software/interface/
interaction) may get picked up and used by someone else, and sometimes
that piece of stuff belongs to someone else. For example, just about
everything in DOS but the backslash belonged to CP/M -- as Paul Allen
will tell you, that's why they *used* the backslash. But that little
change hasn't been enough to sufficiently distinguish DOS from a wide
variety of other OSs which has led to a multitude of infighting and
lawsuits. At this point, I hate to think what would happen if someone
else's OS used the backslash as a similar part of the drive
designation and command line. It's also worth noting that most people
work on a "work for hire" basis -- so if they have thoughts that
relate to -- or would benefit -- their own work/company then
theoretically that idea belongs to the employer, to develop or not as
they may choose (Hollywood has contracts that limit how long a company
is allowed to consider something and if they don't act or they reject
it, the ownership returns to its originator(s). To the best of my
knowledge there's nothing similar in technology.)
3) Can you say "prior art"? It's routine now for patent officers to do
extensive Google (and other) searches for references to bits and
pieces of something presented for patenting. This isn't a problem
necessarily -- you could be asked to sign over your rights in the
diddly-bob controller -- but it does make things nightmarish for a
company pursuing a patent. Also, if you helped by being a bouncing
point when some aspect of an idea was turned into something real, you
could theoretically wind up entitled to own part of it.
This is obviously not a substantial explanation. But in general, it's
important to understand that Intellectual Property pops up in places
where you never thought to see it; and it has significant and far-
reaching effects. If you've got a lawyer friend who knows something
about IP, you could do worse than buying him dinner and picking his
brain.
kt
Katie Albers
Founder & Principal Consultant
FirstThought
User Experience Strategy & Project Management
310 356 7550
ka...@firstthought.com
On Mar 16, 2009, at 4:13 PM, David Cortright wrote:
#1 is really the only concern for me, and it goes away pretty
quickly once
something is shipped.
#2 I used to worry about, but after working in the industry for 15
years,
and specifically in the early stage startup/VC side of things for
the last
year and a half, I've concluded that ideas are worth very little.
It's only
an idea coupled with great execution that really counts. And that
second
part (great execution) is even harder than coming up with great ideas.
While I'm no lawyer, I can't imagine #3 would be an issue for a design
posted to a public forum who's specific purpose is to share ideas
with other
designers.
·Dave
On Mon, Mar 16, 2009 at 12:24 AM, dave malouf <dave....@gmail.com>
wrote:
A few big issues that people have with galleries:
1) Intellectual Property--I can't share what really doesn't belong
to me.
2) Intellectual Property--I don't want to give away my best ideas
for free (not everyone is a believer that everything should be open
source, if anything)
3) Intellectual Property--I don't want to be tainted by seeing other
people's ideas so if an IP legal battle ensues I won't be hit with
"stealing" and only be hit with late comer independent generation
(at worst).
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