Legal Question in Intellectual Property in United Kingdom

Re: protecting business ideas against theft

There are many possibilities to ensure that your concepts are safeguarded. For a start, solicitors are under a professional duty to secrecy. Business partners should be entering into a non-disclosure agreement (NDA), which can (and should) contain appropriate language so as to maintain your rights. You should mark all your materials 'private & confidential'. You should make sure that no-one without a need to know gains access to your ideas. You might move to seek protection of your intellectual property (IP) through patents, copyrights, design protection, etc. (depending of what is applicable). Protection there will, in principle, kick in upon application, i.e. you do not have to wait until the registration of the IP is effected.

There is more than mentioned above but nothing will provide you with 100% proof since it is also always a question of whether you have the knowledge of infringements and the ability to enforce your rights against violation but experienced legal professionals will normally be able to advise on the array of customary safeguards one would normally take.

Do bear in mind that your idea will not come to fruition if you lock it into your closet. It is a question of informed risks, which you can minimise by taking the above safeguards and more.

Proper advice can naturally only be given upon full knowledge of your business idea and its state of development. To that end, the lawyers' duty to professional secrecy might give you some comfort: they must not take it and run (and, us being lawyers, we could often not do it even if we wanted to ;-)

Good luck!

Kind regards,

Volker Hirsch