One of the most daunting aspects of starting any kind of business for most entrepreneurs is knowing how to protect their ideas and intellectual property. There is a tendency to be borderline paranoid with sharing even the most trivial aspects of your idea so the question becomes, "How do I find the balance between protecting my idea and providing enough information to the people I need to get feedback from?" In a cut-throat and highly litigious business environment there are no guarantees but there are a few basic rules that will help you find that balance:

1. ALWAYS use an NDA. An Non-Disclosure Agreement, or NDA, can be simple one page document that is signed by you and the party you are sharing information with about your idea or product which simply states that they agree not to disclose to any one else, or use for their own competitive benefit, any of the information you are sharing with them.If you don't get an NDA and someone steals your idea, you may find your self in the difficult position of establishing who had the idea first, potentially sacrificing first-commer advantage in the market and it could cost you your business. Always keep unsigned NDA's with you so you can quickly pull one out if the time is right to chat with someone. If they won't sign it, don't do business with them. If they want the NDA reviewed by their attorney before discussing your idea then respect that decision, it's not an unreasonable thing for them to do, in fact, it shows that they are prudent. Note VC's may decline to sign them so you'll have to put faith in the fact that they are there to fund good ideas, not steal them, still, only deal with reputable VC's and continue to use NDA's with everyone else, including all business partners, angel investors and employees and contractors.

2. Keep the Rights. If you are enlisting help in building your idea or product, you should have a written agreement with them that any work they do for you and anything which results from that work is yours/your company's, in addition to the NDA. Otherwise they may be a partner, not an employee or contractor and likely won't be a partner you want.

3. File a provisional patent or utility application. The cost is far less than a traditional patent (about $200) and provides added protection by way of documentation and registration for 1 year. It's not the complete protection some would like you believe it is and if you have that strong of an idea then you will still want to file for a complete patent but it is still a good tool to employ in protecting your idea. File within 1 year of any offer for sale, public use or public description (any printed medium including theInternet ) of your idea/product or you loose the right to file. If you really want to lock down your idea from prying eyes, you may be able to utilize a nonpublication request in conjunction with the utility application.

4. You own the copyright to anything you produce as soon as it is fixed to some medium but filing an inexpensive copyright so that it is now a registered copyright will provide added protection for things like written works, music, photographs, ... and can often be done in collections.
IP is has quickly become one of the most valuable assets of any company or individual for that matter so protecting your IP is an essential step in running your business and should be viewed as such rather than something which can be put off, postponed or ignored all together.

As always, consult an attorney on these things to be sure you get the best advice for your situation though things like the NDA are pretty straight forward and easily deployed.

For more good info on copyrights and legally protecting your stuff the internet visit PlagiarismToday, the blog of Jonathan Bailey.

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