Monday, December 24, 2007

Store idea, innovation or invention in i-Depot

The creation process is surrounded by uncertainty. You are trying to formulate an idea, but usually you do not want to be open about it with a commercial party; afraid as you are that they might steal the idea, tinker with it and come with their own idea. The television world is famous for this phenomenon. Besides, often a an ideas circulates around, so a television production company or an full service internet bureau can claim the idea as no one has taken the trouble to put it on paper. Of course you could go to a solicitor and deposit the idea (it was not uncommon that a solicitor would put a staple through a floppy disc, containing the description and perhaps the working of the idea). In some countries you could also lodge a description of an idea, innovation or format with the internal revenue service; they would time stamp the envelop and store it.

In The Netherlands File-reg.com started some years ago an online registration service to prove copyright worldwide with registration servers on different continents. New is the online component in the registration system. Companies and individuals use the registration system to prove they were the first to create and/or are the legal owners/developers of a particular work since they registered the ‘intellectual property’ at a certain moment in time. File-reg.com addresses:
- Media: : Concepts, Designs, (RTV) Formats, Photo’s, AV, etc.
- Science: Data, Logs & Journals, R&D, Calculations, Medical data, etc
- Software: Source code, Web pages & Complete sites, Applications, etc
- Other: Business plans, Presentations, Ideas, Contracts.

Now the intellectual property industry finally has discovered this area. So far they have kept themselves busy with the legal process of the intellectual property such as patents, trade- and service marks. But they did not get involved in the first phase of providing a creative person with some security about an idea, innovation or invention. Now this has changed. The Benelux-Office of Intellectual Property has created a i-Depot to record and deposit ideas in a very early stage.

A creative person can submit a i-DEPOT online or opt for the i-DEPOT envelope. An idea is submitted online. This submission method is fast, easy, cheap and, above all, safe. In several steps an applicant will be asked to fill in specific details and add a description or representation of your concept or idea. After the payment has been processed, the applicant will receive a confirmation by e-mail and he/she can download the i-DEPOT certificate immediately. He/she can also decide not to download your i-DEPOT certificate and instead do this later, for example when there is a need for the i-DEPOT certificate as evidence in a legal or other dispute. The i-DEPOT certificate is signed by the BOIP in digital form to safeguard the integrity of the document. Any change will automatically make the i-DEPOT invalid.

The method with the i-DEPOT envelope is available in case it is impossible or undesirable to record the concept or idea electronically, or to pay electronically. As soon as BOIP has received the order form (pdf in Dutch or French) and the payment, the BOIP will send you an i-DEPOT envelope. The envelope consists of two parts, in each of which he/she should place an identical document describing or depicting the creation as clearly as possible. The BOIP will time stamp them upon receipt and return one part to the original address and files the other in its own archives unopened. You can ask the BIOP to send you the second part as well (once only) to provide evidence in the case of a legal dispute or conflict.

Blog Posting Number: 960

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