Advise on people stealing new ideas for Entrepreneur spirits

[rongsokan]

I notice that anywhere we go as entreprneurs, we always afraid that our new ideas will be taken away from us if we reveals it to even investors, friends, alliance company, customers and even the Big guys. I want to gather all entreprneur experinece in this forum to help gather knowledge on how we as a person or a small company could protect ourself when we face this kind of challenge. This could be very interesting and I know a lot of people here are having this kind of challenge as I am now. Thanks

[slavka012]

Put "HIRE A LAWYER" in your signature. That way you can avoid posting lengthy posts. Even one smiley would do -- everything worth reading would already be there!

It's funny how for you hiring a lawyer is a universal solution to every problem.

By the way, do I sign an NDA with my IP Lawyer? I guess I'll need to hire another lawyer to draft it, right?

[HSK]

Put "HIRE A LAWYER" in your signature. That way you can avoid posting lengthy posts... It's funny how for you hiring a lawyer is a universal solution to every problem.
Seriously. Too many lawyers are telling too many people that lawyers can solve all of life's many problems.

[heavyweight]

Well, if you are afraid of your ideas being stolen, then hiring a lawyer is the easy way to ease your mind.

I personally think the best way to protect yourself, in general, is to create a plan that is so unique and creative, as well as matching your teams skills perfectly, so that if someone attempts to copy your idea they will fail.

If you read your business plan and are afraid someone can copy it, then the chances of your success are limited as it is. You are probably better off letting someone take your idea and watching them fail.

Don't give away the creative aspect of your plan until you have already bootstrapped and built the company large enough that you are secure and need financing or partnerships. The time frame for this would be 1 year on average. I don't think that someone could walk in and steal your years of work and succesfully continue on. Beyond the idea and plan, you have built necessary skills, learned a great deal of critical information that is absolutely required for the venture to be successful.

Worrying to much can lead to a ventures early demise.

The critical elements listed in Dealon's post can most often be completed without the assistance of a lawyer, and doing them on your own will be a good learning experience for other ventures.

[heavyweight]

While I did recommend doing legal tasks yourself in my above post, I should clarify that I did not mean for this to attend to ALL aspects of business.

SOME, of what Dealon had listed can be done on your own (for some people, not everyone). Trademark and copyright was the major one that I believe can be done on your own. However, my opinion may be biased as I have done this many times and it appears to be a very simple procedure for me.

By no means am I recommending bypassing a lawyer completely. There comes a point in EVERY business' growth where a lawyer is necessary for protection.

[slavka012]

You appear to have little respect for professional services

Well let's not generalize. I have respect to some lawyers, but not to the ones pushing them as a solution to every problem.

Bottom line, no lawyer or NDA will protect you from your idea being stolen. Don't forget that even more expensive weasels will be working hard to cover THE OTHER PARTY's ASS.

On a bright side, risk of being your idea stolen is highly exaggerated. Many people are busy making many on THEIR OWN idea. They don't have resources to do another one, which is likely smaller. Another unfortunate consequence is that value of your idea is likely highly exaggerated, too.

From my experience: There is a company in UK referring customers to me for nearly 6 years, letting me to sell about 40K $ worth of stuff per year, while it probably would cost them about 15-20K to develop the same product and do all the the selling on their own. I don't have any kind of agreement with them, and they have engineers on their staff.

[slavka012]

I wonder who you are referring to when you say 'even more expensive weasels', seeing as you CLEARLY respect professionals and all!!!!

Hey, don't get all worked up :) In courts, people screw other people out of money ON TECHNICALITIES all the time, who help them doing that? I suppose, respectful professionals?

[slavka012]

Oh slavka, you really are quite disgruntled about lawyers, aren't you?

I know how the system works and the role lawyers have in it. I have not suffered from injustice personally, so I'm not really disgruntled. It is *sometimes* inevitable evil, that's all :)

With you, often times you recommend lawyer to people how count every penny, which is ridiculous. More importantly, they have little or no business value to protect. Spend all the money you have on lawyers and be left with nothing to do your actual business with. Real smart approach.

Me, I think, start making some money first, then begin worrying about losing them. Yes, calling lawyers on early stages is risk management, but as I explained, the risk is really not worth the trouble. It is only IF your idea is worth stealing that you actually risk losing something in future, which, as any VC will tell you, does not happen very often :)

Btw, assuming your idea IS worth stealing is actually quite arrogant :)

[slavka012]

Slavka, you are most certainly entitled to live by your cavalier approach on managing your business affairs without getting proper professional advice, but you really should not be encouraging others to follow you down the same path.

And why shouldn't I? It worked for me, might work for somebody else.


Your belief that it is better to make money BEFORE seeing a lawyer is quite risky, as your money can quickly be gone if you do NOT see a lawyer.


Well that's unsubstantiated statement, so I skip the rest of the argument. In my experience it is not risky. In my experience using a bit of common sense is enough to avoid most of the trouble. In my experience people who worry about all this stuff are not getting anywhere.


So, if you want to make money, you have to learn to spend some of it first.
If you don't believe in your concept sufficiently enough to invest YOUR money in it to retain professionals, then what makes you think that OTHERS will invest in your business or want to deal with it???
Spoken as a true lawyer. A fine example of what I hate lawyers for. Perverting the words and generalization. Unsophisticated jury members are often easily manipulated by statements like this.

See, spending money on lawyers is not an indication of anything, really.

[slavka012]

The more you speak the more you show your qualifications to sit on the unsophisticated jury panel you discuss.

Slavka, you amuze me. You really do. Please don't stop attempting to convince the world that because you can do it (right or wrong seems to be irrelevant to you) then they should too---it's actually quite entertaining for those of us who DO know what we're talking about.:lol: Perhaps you can share your other apparent intuitive gifts such as do-it-yourself open-heart surgeries, root canals, etc. You're clearly gifted after all---not needing to go to school to learn things like others have to!!!!:razz:
now you are just making personal attacks, therefore I stop responding to your posts.

[pupazzo]

Lol wtf are "Entrepreneur spirits", some kind of ghosts?

[ctp2k7]

They are the one who'll scare you for a profit.

It would be cheaper to deal with the free spirits.:lol:

[rongsokan]

Besides lawyer, what are the simple everyday things that we could do so that you are protected as a entrepenuer. Will signing an agreement works? However, asking for all the people you meet;like Investors, bankers, customers, to sign the agreement would be a real hassle. and probably not the best way to go about. any though?

[slavka012]

Besides lawyer, what are the simple everyday things that we could do so that you are protected as a entrepenuer. Will signing an agreement works? However, asking for all the people you meet;like Investors, bankers, customers, to sign the agreement would be a real hassle. and probably not the best way to go about. any though?
Don't go into to much details of the idea.

[ullyeus]

While I think that's a fear for many people...I don't think it's a realistic fear...an "idea" isn't really much....idea's are plentiful....it's people with the forward momentum and drive to succeed that take an idea and make it into something.

When you are being an entrepreneur you will need to get people involved in your idea...it's just gonna happen....hire or seek advise from other professionals.

[Just Confused]

While I think that's a fear for many people...I don't think it's a realistic fear...an "idea" isn't really much....idea's are plentiful....it's people with the forward momentum and drive to succeed that take an idea and make it into something.

When you are being an entrepreneur you will need to get people involved in your idea...it's just gonna happen....hire or seek advise from other professionals.

I agree wholeheartedly with ullyeus. You could go down the street with a loudspeaker telling everybody about your idea and no one will bother to take action on it... because it's too much work! What will make your idea into a successful enterprise is you! Your vision, your enthusiasm, your hard work, your planning and execution. People can steal your idea but they can't steal you. They won't do the rest of the required effort to make it a success. I can guarantee somebody in the world has already thought of your idea but didn't do anything about it. You should have no fear in sharing your idea with other professionals you'll need to grow your idea into a fruitful business.