Not sure if this is considered spam or not, but at LawPàdí we just published a post with the above topic, and I thought a few of the people here might find it helpful.
Was initially going to post it as a comment to this post by @seyitaylor - No one is going to steal your idea , but decided not to as that post is really around the question of whether ideas get stolen…this post is about ‘How to prevent it’ from happening…or at least mitigate it. I’m posting an excerpt of the post here, so you decide if you need to bother clicking on the link to read the full article or not.
P.S - we also included a link to a free NDA template specifically targeted for Nigerian entrepreneurs at the end of the post, (and no, NDAs are not the only way you can protect your ideas).
Excerpt below:
'Entrepreneurs sometimes come up with business ideas that they think will change the world, and make them millions or billions of naira…but they guard this idea/product/business jealously worried that each person they speak to about it, is a potential threat to their future business.
One of the biggest fears of any entrepreneur is the fear that if they reveal too much about their idea or business or product to the wrong person, the idea might be ‘stolen’.
So we at LawPàdí decided to write this post with the hope it would help Nigerian entrepreneurs who are going through this dilemma.
To start with, and the most important thing you should know is that you cannot copyright or patent an idea. Not possible.
Copyright is a legal right that grants the creator of an original work exclusive right to its use and distribution, usually for a limited time. For it to be eligible for copyright protection, the work must be sufficiently original, and must be in a form which can be expressed.
Patent is an exclusive right granted for an invention, which is a product or a process that provides a new way of doing something, or offers a new technical solution to a problem.
So, for both copyright and patent, it’s not enough for you to have a ‘mere’ idea’. It must be expressed or must be an actual product/process, which has been invented.
That makes sense right?! Imagine if people could just think up stuff in their heads and claim IP rights over those ideas, when they have done absolutely nothing to execute the idea.
So your business idea/project etc. doesn’t meet the criteria for copyright protection or patent registration? So what?! Don’t get dejected! There are a number of other ways that smart entrepreneurs can use to protect their business ideas, and we will discuss a few of them below…’
Full post here - www.lawpadi.com/how-to-protect-your-business-idea/
Hope a few people here find it useful.
Cheers!