Legal Question in Business Law in California

Re: Is my idea safe on the net?

You definitely need to copyright your work before you publish it. You can get the necessary paperwork from the US Patent and Trademark Office in Washington DC. If you are designing software, then you may need patent protection as well.

Re: Is my idea safe on the net?

Anytime you put any information on the internet, you risk the chance of someone using it without your consent. In order to protect your creation, you will need to copyright it. While this will not prevent others from using your ideas and creations, it will provide you with remedies in the event someone does steal it.

You should probably seek the services of an IP (Intellectual Property) attorney, who can help you protect your ideas, and can tell you exactly what you need to do.

Re: Is my idea safe on the net?

Ideas are never safe, even when fully patented or copyrighted. Copying, knockoffs, imitations and outright infringements are epidemic and so are lawsuits to resolve the resulting disputes. The more people who learn about your ideas, the more likely you will be copied. Last year there was a landmark case involving joecartoon.com. Are you familiar with that site?

You get a certain amount of copyright protection under state law (common law) automatically, just by creating (authoring) a work. Your degree of protection is significantly augmented if you apply for and receive Federal copyright protection. Then you can display the circle-C copyright symbol. This will discourage, but not necessarily prevent, infringement.

The subject of protection of creative works is too broad to cover adequately here, but there are good books available.....try your library or a bookstore for self-help works on how to protect your creative output.