Legal Question in Business Law in California

Re: copyright

depending on your idea, and given the fact that copyrighting on each particular form are not that expensive, you may wish to copyright it both as a visual art, as well as any other form / format that you may have it written down in and/or recorded. there is a chance that the Register of Copyrights would not accept your "idea" as a visual performance. it depends on how you have recorded your idea.

further, before you show it to anyone, you would want them to sign a non-disclosure / non-circumvent. although this type of an agreement is subject to abuse and circumvention just by the very nature of an intellectual property such as what you have briefly described, it is better to have it than not.

additionally, the copyright office is seriously lagging in getting copyrights issued. for that reason, i would also suggest that in addition to filing of the forms, you do the "poor man's copyright" . . . which is to say that you send each of the items which you seek to copyright also to yourself by certified mail, return reciept. don't ever open them when the come to you, (you would only need to do that in the context of a court proceeding to prove that your idea was yours as of the date you mailed it to yourself). keep the receipt when it comes back to you. hopefully, you will never need to use it at all.

if $$ is an object to you, you can also, (and you should anyway) call the help line at the copyright office. they may give some decent input as to which form or forms that they will accept, depending on how you have recorded your idea.

Re: copyright

Ideas may not be copyrighted, only the expression thereof. You need to have confidentiality and use agreements to anyone you provide the ideas to.

JOEL SELIK

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