Say, you work really hard and spend several sleepless nights to achieve your goal only to find that you can no longer claim it as yours. It’s devastating to know that your idea or invention has been stolen. What should you do in such a situation?
The first thing that comes to your mind, when you get to know that your idea is being stolen, is to take the thieves to court and sue them. However, things are not that simple. It takes a lot to steal someone else’s invention and they didn’t do it only to get sued one day, easily. In court, you will have to prove that your invention was stolen. For this, you will have to save all correspondence, including texts, emails, pictures, etc that relates to your invention and provides relevant information.
Well, if you are in a similar situation, this article will come to your rescue. The process to claim back your invention depends on numerous factors and you need to consider them to protect your intellectual property. The factors include the kind of invention you created, what type of protection you opted for, whether you had created a patent or not, etc.
You can choose to get professional help from one of the best firms and other institutions that offer services to protect your invention. Visit InventHelp to know more about what you can do when your invention is stolen.
Create A Patent
There are various different kinds of inventions. The most common ones being, one that enters and leaves the market in just a few years without having a major impact, and the other ones being a game-changer, which has higher chances of getting stolen. Thus, they must be patented at all costs.
The main reason why people get a patent for their idea or invention is so that nobody can use their unique vision and gain an undue advantage. However, in some cases where imagination can be modified quickly, people upgrade it and work to attain profits.
In such cases, no matter how well-drafted or good your patent is, you can’t do anything. Your time and money will all go to waste in such cases. Therefore, patenting is not always the best way to go. In such a scenario you can opt for the below-mentioned method.
Trade Secrets Protection
It is natural to be worried about your invention getting stolen, especially when it is an original idea. You can opt for reverse engineering. However, you must know that in some cases, reverse engineering ideas are challenging.
If your idea is such that reverse engineering is not possible easily, we recommend you go for trade secrets rather than getting a patent. By trade secret, you can gain profits until someone else reverse engineers your idea or idea.
A trade secrets protection will ensure that your rivals do not get a patent for a similar kind of innovation or technology.
Steal It Yourself
Instead of sitting back and getting emotional, we recommend you focus on outthinking the competition. The best way to do so is by stealing the invention from yourself. Yes, you heard that correctly, steal your invention from yourself.
Now, how can you do that? Will modifying the shape a bit will work or should you change its material? How about trying some alternative manufacturing methods? You should think of and brainstorm about all the circumstances in which your idea will be utilized. This includes every other scenario and not just the primary one that you had in mind when you were developing it.
To do so, you should also study the other ideas that are similar to yours and are patented. We highly recommend doing it because after you understand what others have done to their inventions from the beginning, you can easily hone the steps for your invention differently. Studying other similar cases will give you knowledge about the additional variations that you can choose to add to your invention.
This will make the filing of your case for intellectual property stronger and hence valuable to a great extent.
Copyright Protection
You can opt for copyright protection to protect your invention and ideas. In case, you suspect that your idea has been stolen, you can send a desist or a cease letter to them stating that you own rights over that particular invention and they must stop infringing if they do not want to get entangled in a legal battle.
You should not make the mistake of thinking that legal protection is available for all kinds of inventions. Legal protection is only available for the industrial designs and varieties of plants available. When it comes to protecting the inventions of the startups, you can opt for copyrights and patents.
A patent is required to be granted, published, and registered, whereas copyrights can be enforced by the author even without getting it registered in most cases.
One of the most important ways to protect your invention from getting stolen is to get it patented, especially when you are sure that someone will definitely copy your idea. If it is not being copied, know that you didn’t have an out-of-the-box idea.
However, if you are dealing in an industry wherein, your invention will become obsolete in a short time, don’t go through the patenting process. It will take months before your patent gets approved. Instead, get it copyrighted.
In case you are sure that your idea will be in demand even after a considerable time of getting a patent, then go ahead and apply for a patent. To get a secured patent, always invest in an experienced and professional patent service provider.
Final Word
To prove that the invention was yours, you will first have to get it registered under your name. This will prove that you owned the work. Only because you know that it was your invention doesn’t make it yours. You should double-check your rights before acting upon your idea being stolen.
