Idea Submission

In some cases, individuals may submit ideas to your company for a product or slogan and thereafter expect compensation. Under copyright law, ideas are not protectable; only the expression of those ideas can be copyrighted. Once an idea is set forth in some tangible and fixed form, however, it is subject to copyright protection.

The entertainment, toy, and game industries often litigate idea submissions, whether because an individual claims that the idea for a television sitcom was actually his or hers, that the plot of a movie has been stolen from a letter written to a studio, or that the individual is really the creator of a board game or television game show. Generally, courts have held that an abstract idea is not protectable ...

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