The Facebook phenomenon took the world by storm and today there are approximately 670 million users of the popular social networking site in the world. Whenever a new concept is so successful, one always wonders how did the person in question come up with the idea and why did someone else not come up with the idea sooner?
In 2003 the "Winklevoss Twins", Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, hired the founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, to develop their social networking site Harvard Connection (now Connect U). Several weeks later, Mark Zuckerberg launched thefacebook.com and the Winklevoss Twins claimed that Mark Zuckerberg had stolen their idea. In 2008 the dispute was settled and the Winklevoss Twins received $20 million in cash and partial ownership in Facebook to the value of $45 million. However, in December 2010 the Winklevoss Twins filed a new suit seeking further compensation on the basis that they had been misled about the stock value of Facebook at the time the settlement was reached. The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the Winklevoss Twins' request and stated "The Winklevosses are not the first parties bested by a competitor who then seek to gain through litigation what they were unable to in the marketplace".
It is a longstanding misconception that an idea, in itself, can be protected by intellectual property law. Although all intellectual property starts as a "product of the mind", the idea or concept needs to be reduced to some sort of a material form in order to be protected. Once the idea is in a material form, the applicable law can be determined.
Patent law protects inventions that are novel and "not obvious" and it is necessary to sufficiently describe the invention in such a way that it can be made and used by a person skilled in the art. By defining the invention upon application, the idea is transformed into a material form.
Copyright law protects various types of works such as literary works, artistic works, computer programmes and cinematograph films once the work in question is reduced to a material form. Copyright automatically subsists in a work once it is created and reduced to a material form.
One may protect an idea per se by entering into a confidentiality agreement with third parties. However, the remedy would not be based on Intellectual Property Law but rather on a breach of contract.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
