How could I protect my idea and solution?

I have an idea to make a device popular in SL and have made a complete solution for it. I know the solution would be successful and have a good market because I'm familiar with SL.

However, I haven't enough time and programing skill to create this device. I'm afraid my solution is leaked or copied if I find partners. How could I protect my solution ? Would Linden Lab protect my solution?

Your any comment or advice would be highly appreciated.


Kind regards,

Software Patent (copyright or trademark in this situation would not be appropriate).

No.

Very true, you would have to be retroactive in protecting it (you will need a lawyer). And registering the patent will be expensive. It's probably not worth the hassle (and expense) of registering.

In fact, if you solution is sufficiently impressive, they might add it to the free inventory pack that all new avatars get when they are created.

seems to me that the only way to protect your idea is to hire a lawyer, with possible international law experience and have contracts for all the working parties to sign. Which would make the profits from the wonder-gadjet a little smaller I'd say.

here's what I suggest, find someone you feel is trustworthy and competant and offer them
a share of the profit, and let the chips fall where they may. You might make some money and someone will copy the idea if it is good enough to copy but do it anyway.

Tomorrow you may have another brilliant idea and have no time for the current one so just do it, at the very least people will enjoy your idea and SL will be a better place...

My suggestion. Give the idea to Linden. They will try to use it, "F" it up so no one will want to even think about it. Then you can take your time and develop it properly.

Dummy up a contract and have all involved sign it. Easy

While I am in full support of contracts (although this one could have a high price tag attached to it -- a lawyer understanding of international intellectual property is going to be important), realistically, will you have the money and resources to prosecute should you need to enforce a contract or patent. IP legal cases can be tied for years and cost a lot of money.

My advice: make it well, have fun with it, price it fairly, and have some more fun.

Cheers.

The OP already said he didn't have the skill to make it well, and is afraid of having the idea stolen by anyone he approaches with a view to being business partners.

Answer to OP: You have no practical recourse. Any method you attempted to protect your idea legally would be prohibitively expensive and might not even work. All you can do is try and pick trustworthy people to ask into partnership.

To find a business partner that wouldn't consider placing their hand in your back pocket, is as risky as crossing the street. We use emails to converse and thrash out exactly what is the terms and conditions of the business. The rest is based on trust...

Unless you are talking a multi-million dollar investment/turnover/profit senerio.. use your instinct. Your head not your heart, look for anything which makes you suspicous. At the moment you have nothing more than an idea.

if all you need is a 'coder' i would try sites like 'rentacoder.com' or others that are like that
you can hire coders to make your projects come to life and make them sign a non-disclosure agreement

most of the time your coders will be students in india or romaina and just wanna 1)learn and 2) earn

I should have added... "make it well with the aid of someone that it is felt can be trusted as much possible or with the same vision". LOL Writing half a response -- too early in the morning.



Yes, mostly what I said in my sleepy comment.

Presently, the only thing "protecting" your idea is that it's not already in the marketplace. However, this doesn't prevent someone from independently devising a product utilizing your same idea and bringing it to market.

Compartmentalization is one possibility, depending on the complexity of the idea. Each person involved with the product works on a component of the idea which can be delivered "out-world" and then uploaded/pasted/assembled by yourself so you're clearly labeled as the object's creator.

"Golden chains" might also help as it creates a financial incentive to not replicate the product. Each person involved with the creation of the product gets a commission, based on their level of participation in the object's creation.

Protecting an idea in SL is near-impossible. Even if you find a 100% honest coder to partner with, once the product is out and people can see what it is and what it does, expect skilled scripters to reverse-engineer it and make competing solutions.

I believe this is a good thing; it encourages competition. With a free-for-all in terms of ideas etc, the real competition lies in how well the idea is scripted/implemented, and price.

An example: I made the first sculpted stairs in Second Life. Then a competitor arose that made a better product. That forced me to go back and completely re-design my product from the ground up, to make it better, and then sell it for a bit less than the competition. I fully expect to be outdone in due time, which will again force me to polish and possibly lower the price.

Utility patents last time i checked started at 20- 30k usd, good luck. Once you have the patent, you must have a lawyer who loves to seek and destroy thine enemy.

your best bet is to hire a coder who does not use SL

if you need help finding 'coders for hire' cheap goto www.rentacoder.com

i've used it for quite a few projects, and the work they do is awesome, and SUPER CHEAP

My advice: learn building and/or scripting, if needed also texturing and animating. That's the first step before attempting to do any business in SL. Then, after you know what's technically possible, come up with a product idea.

Dears, Thanks for you all. Give me time to think about your replies.

No -- last I looked (I was threatened with a patent suit in SL), ToS 3.2 states that you waive all patent claims WITHIN Second Life.

This is from an old ToS, but check the last 2 sentences.:

You also understand and agree that by submitting your Content to any area of the Service, you automatically grant (or you warrant that the owner of such Content has expressly granted) to Linden Lab and to all other users of the Service a non-exclusive, worldwide, fully paid-up, transferable, irrevocable, royalty-free and perpetual License, under any and all patent rights you may have or obtain with respect to your Content, to use your Content for all purposes within the Service. You further agree that you will not make any claims against Linden Lab or against other users of the Service based on any allegations that any activities by either of the foregoing within the Service infringe your (or anyone else's) patent rights.


Sole recourse is software copyright, which IS protected. But, this guy says he doesn't have the skill to script it himself.

I also have some threads posted by SL's legal consul, explaining why SL supports copyright but NOT patent.

soft patents do not apply where i live however, and in many countries.

Ideas are free, if you can't make it happens, someone else will.

Ideas are a dime a dozen. The hard part is making it happen. That's what separates the talkers from the doers.

I agree with this advice. I find it highly unlikely that you came up with a valuable original idea without knowing how to implement it. I mean, if the idea were really big it would make perfect sense that you can't do it alone and need others to help you, but that's not what you said; you're talking about an idea that can be done by a single person, just not you personally.

You can't patent a mere idea. It has to be an "invention" and you must describe precisely how it's going to work, in sufficient detail that someone else with relevant technical knowledge could reproduce it. If you don't have the skills to build it then you almost certainly don't have the skills to patent it either.

*** your best bet is to hire a coder who does not use SL ***

Yeah, and one who has magically learned LSL nonetheless.