I don't know if this is the right forum for this but what the heck.

A couple years ago I came up with a great idea for a web site. A while ago I noticed it's already since been done (you snooze you loose) but only in the US. There is no Canadian equivilent and Canada really needs it! This is not an E-Commerce business. The site is a free service which would get a lot of hits.

In any case, I am not a programmer nor do I know one. Obviously there is no way to keep someone from putting up a site with the same theme but how would I approach someone regarding my idea and not have them just run away with it and run it on their own?

Thanks,

Jeff

Patent it.

Copyrighting and parenting will work

Patent it, get copyright on it and don't tell anybody about it.

let's say that your idea is like a dead man, never shared with anybody. You are the only guy to know it. I have experienced similar stuff. My ideas have been stolen not once or twice. So I have decided to think that my ideas are like a dead man. Never to be shared with anybody. You know what they say - Dead man tell no tales. 100% true. Keep your ideas on a sketch in your head and if they ever come alive, then you have managed to keep them out of the hands of all those vultures out there.

tell no one and make sure that your idea is unique ti its nature. All the new stuff that are being created have bits and pieces from the old ones. So if one creates something new then a dozen of people can turn up and say, he stole it from me.

I used to feel pretty bad about it, but not anymore. I just imagine there are probably tonnes of people out there with good ideas that are being developed by someone else, for reasons such as lack of time, lack of resources, etc... :)

If you do go ahead and hire a design company to do a web site for you, and you truly believe you are sitting on a goldmine of an idea, make sure you have a lawyer look over the contract with them. Clauses protecting your intellectual property rights should be in place as should limitations to their accessibility to your site after work has been done. Also, some sketchy web dev companies will retain copyright for images/graphics/content they create for your site. You paid them for it, so it should be yours!

Bottom line? Seek legal advice if you believe your idea is steal-worthy. And copyright/patent it.

Id Patent it and copyright it

If you could tell us your idea, it would be easier to give you proper guidance.

:emlaugh:

j/k ;)

The standard practice is to make someone sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement and copyright the idea. Both being proof positive that you had the idea first and that you were going to implement it.

Thanks folks! Patents, I believe, are rather pricy and I don't have a lot of $$$. I don't know if I can even patent it since the idea is already out there. Although in the last couple days, I've realized that my site would have better "features" and instead of making it just Canada, it would be World Wide or at least include more countries.

Jeff

if they haven't given it a patent then you still can and steal it right back.

What a nice way to stop people from stealing! Encourage them to steal from the people who had stole in the first place! Wow I haven't thought about this. :D

I have been in similar situations before. My research shows there is no way to protect your idea.

The good news is if it is a risky project (which most projects are) then no one is really going to rush to steal your idea to begin with. They may even think you are crazy for trying it!

Now to the practical matters, you cannot copyright or patent an idea for a website (ex. a website that lets people do this or that). What you can do is copyright the specific words and images you use and patent your methodology.

For example if you have a certain system you use (i.e. the user does this, followed by that, and then something else happens), you can patent that. Amazon has a patent on its one click ordering system, for example.

The bad news is that all it takes is a few deviations from your idea (perhaps even improvements to your idea) and your patent won't protect you. If you are on a budget you probably don't have the several thousand dollars to spend on this anyway.

I would recommend you hire your crew out of a pool of professionals and have non-compete's in place. This is different from a non disclosure (which simply means they cannot discuss things you tell them with other parties or use your information for their business, as in if you get them in touch with your clients they cannot go ahead and steal your client list and solicit them for themselves).

A Non-Compete agreement means they will not be able to work on project that are exactly or in the same area as yours. For example, if your website is a public directory for doctors and lawyers they would not be able to work for any other public directories for doctors and lawyers.

That gives you the assurance that the people you work with directly will not steal your idea and run off with it. It still will not prevent other people from stealing your idea once they see it.

I hope that helps.

My word of advice is if you are passionate about it hire the right people and do it. Even others copy your idea, only you have the vision for why your version will succeed. Besides, there is plenty of room on the internet for competition. Just because one or more people are doing what you do already doesn't mean yours won't be successful (depends on the idea of course, but in most cases this is the way it is).

I have the same problem, I got the website idea, and I am trying to protect it. But everyone is saying that you can't patent the website(?). What could you do?

Or better question is what could you patent, and protect. If step by step, or click by click, later could be modified and slightly changed, then why wasting money on protecting anything... But I am sure that there has to be a way of protecting it. It just has to be possible to prevent other people to just steel your hard work and either tweak it, or bring it to the next level on their own, for something that may take other person months or years of hard work to develop.

Please, anyone, if you could give more specific answer to this general unknown, it would be greatly appreciated.

I recently done a very large project for middle east's goverment bank. Its a quiet big project and when I approached them for the work they send me non-disclosure agreement which I signed on company's behalf and then they send scope of work so I think non-disclosure agreement also can do do good in some cases..

copyright it, then if someone steals it before you get round to setting it up .. sue them :-)

You could try breaking the site creation into parts, then have different programmers (from different companies) work on them. You can use freelance places like GURU or FREELANCER, and then you'd just manage the project.
By breaking it up, it would possibly be a way to keep any one programmer from determining what the overall site would be about.

There's really no way checking the reality. The best thing to do is keep it in mind. Find a trustworthy developer partner.

1. Keep it with yourself unless you fully create a site

2. Patent it (if you are not a web developer)

I have the same problem :(, i'm think is hard to patent any content on the web :S

http://www.legalzoom.com/

The nature of the internet is that it is public. Whatever measures you take can be overcome and website material downloaded. I wouldn't worry about this too much. Just make your site and hopefully for the life of the site [two years] there won't anyone taking your material too much.

The best way to protect your idea is to apply it immediate before someone else read your mind ;)