How to Protect myself from intellectual property theft while seeking collaboration

[Sci3nc3Fr3ak]

I have come up with a hypothesis around which I was going to write my thesis as a student. At this time, I am unable to continue school due to financial restraints. I recently read about another, very well established scientist testing hypotheses in the same field as mine and how he is running into problem after problem. I would like to contact him and share my ideas and possibly look for collaboration in testing my ideas but am unsure of how to do so whilst protecting my intellectual property from potentially being stolen. Any advice on how to do so would be very much welcomed. Thank you for your time and I look forward to reading your suggestions.

[tomgwyther]

I work in the music U.K industry and this sort of thing come up a lot. Not sure how well it will translate to the realm of science but here goes.

 

Generally speaking it boils down to to things; Can you prove that the work existed with you as the creator at a certain time.

And, how far are you willing to go to persue a breach of intellectual property rights.

 

If you did suspect a breach you would need to prove that it was your idea originally. you could take the work which explains you idea to a lawyer who would keep a copy and would be prepared to testify that you were the owner. also you can keep a copy of the work in a bank vault. The bank would keep your details, the details of what was deposited and when it was deposited. You might also try contacting you local/national patent office The UK one is here

 

Also you might wish to consider the effort involved in persuing a case; can you afford the time and money it would cost to challenge someone in court.

 

It's quite hard to stop someone stealing you ideas, but you can put a few safeguards in place. you might also consider drawing up a contract between yourself and the other party which details each others intellectual property.

 

Hope this has been of some help.

[CaptainPanic]

The simple solution is:

 

If you want to get famous, but you're not after money for a specific invention: publish. Get it out in the open, with your name on it. Get it in a peer-reviewed journal.

If you want to get rich, and you only have a single brilliant idea: patent. Check through a patent search if you are correct that nobody else thought of this before. If no, get a patent.

 

And yes, a patent is expensive... but there exist investment funds that like to invest in high risk science. The better your idea, the better the deal you can strike with them. But it'd better be a good idea.

 

With just a hypothesis, I would publish. A hypothesis is not gonna make you rich. And in all fairness, I don't think it's enough even to publish. You should test the hypothesis a few times if you can. And you should show why it's better than an existing hypothesis that describes the same phenomenon...

[ajb]

When ever you talk to anyone about your ideas you risk someone "stealing it" and not giving a reference or even an acknowledgement. However, I have found that people are generally busy enough with their own ideas and quite happy to offer you advice.

 

Depending on what your idea is, it might be okay to place a preprint on the arXiv. That will have your name and a date. You will however need a sponsor and this would require you to share your idea with someone.

 

What I have done in the past is send work to more than one person at the same time and send a copy to my brother. I don't know if that is being a bit paranoid, as I have never had a dispute about work of that nature.

[DrRocket]

I have come up with a hypothesis around which I was going to write my thesis as a student. At this time, I am unable to continue school due to financial restraints. I recently read about another, very well established scientist testing hypotheses in the same field as mine and how he is running into problem after problem. I would like to contact him and share my ideas and possibly look for collaboration in testing my ideas but am unsure of how to do so whilst protecting my intellectual property from potentially being stolen. Any advice on how to do so would be very much welcomed. Thank you for your time and I look forward to reading your suggestions.

 

It is not at all clear that you have any intellectual property. For instance, you cannot patent a fundamental scientific principle or a mathematical formula.

 

That said, I suggest the you first conduct a literature search to determine what is known in whatever field is your specialty, and what relevant research is being conducted and reported.

 

Once you have a reasonable understanding for the current state of the art you might contact the scientist in question and determine if you have a common interest. Theft of ideas is rare among academics, but it does happen. You ought to be able to make an assessment of the scientist in question after speaking with him for some period of time.

 

Then you make a decision and take the consequences just like everyone else.

 

 

What I have done in the past is send work to more than one person at the same time and send a copy to my brother. I don't know if that is being a bit paranoid, as I have never had a dispute about work of that nature.

 

Note even from your brother ?

[ajb]

Note even from your brother ?

 

He has no idea about my work, his speciality is plant virus interactions. The reason I send him an email is that I then have a time stamp on my system and his. I can point to a time and date of work if a dispute ever arose.

 

As you say, academics tend not to steal work and usually give citations. My experience so far has been positive and my advice is not to be worried about speaking to people.

[Dr. Ashutosh Pradhan]

What methods are available to have the document time stamped in order to prove originality of the work? Does franking the document with a certain value and getting it notarized will help? What are your views?