Protecting intellectual property online

How to protect my intellectual property? How can I avoid having my ideas robbed? These are two questions that are heard a lot in the circles of writers and directors who want to carry out their first film project.

In the first place, a key element to protect intellectual property is the registration of the work. It is still surprising today to see a professional who lacks sufficient information about the registration possibilities that exist, either in official intellectual property registries or in professional organizations that provide this service.

It is still baffling to see the distrust of some creators in showing their scripts (or projects) to producers. This should be a natural and absolutely normal process. The course of selling a script implies that the producers have to read it, that there must be an exhibition of the work that should be a show of pride, but that sometimes is full of fear. For what it could happen…

Surely there is a producer tempted to appropriate an idea or a project but they are isolated cases and to protect themselves there is already the registration of intellectual property. If your idea is stolen, you can prove it and denounce the person or company in question. But locking oneself in fear of what may happen does not make much sense or does not benefit the creator in any case.

There are organizations such as the United States Writers Union (WGA) in which anyone who has written a script, a play, a synopsis, a documentary, a book, a scene, a story, a concept… can register their work. The possibilities are many. It can be done from your home, it is valid for everyone and has a cost of $ 20. In addition, the WGA sends you a certificate with the information and the registration number. The rights will be valid for 5 years. And you simply have to upload the pdf of what you want to register and perform a procedure that takes 5 minutes.

From this moment on, do not be afraid of being robbed. If they do, you will take the permissible actions.

What about an online market?

With the appearance of online markets the protection of intellectual property is even more necessary, if it was not enough. At Filmarket Hub, producers have access to the One Page (which collects certain project information) but intellectual property is protected. The short synopsis (800 characters) gives a description of what the project is about but does not give enough information to be stolen. In addition, if a producer requests a to read a script, you are the one who gives permission to read it and a record of the application is kept.

If some producer stole an idea or a story (something unlikely), you can easily prove where you got it from. The request is recorded.

Either in an online market or because you have sent your script to the producer, the process of exposing it must be seen as something natural in which one must protect their copyright without closing doors to producers who might want to learn about the project.