by Jason Fischer

It is a well known axiom of U.S. intellectual property law that there is no protection afforded to mere ideas.  In order to employ the force and power of our legal system to enforce your intellectual property rights, you must have something more concrete than an idea.  In patent law, for example, you must have reduced your invention to practice (although constructive reduction to practice can be used to satisfy the requirement).  In trademark law, you must have actually used your mark in association with goods or services.  In the realm of copyrights, an author must fix her expression in a tangible form before the government will recognize any exclusive rights.

The bottom line is that you can’t sue anyone for “stealing your idea” or “taking that movie plot you thought of.”  This concept is hard for some to grasp, and every so often, a big player in the IP world may take advantage of this common misunderstanding.  While perusing sites that sell graphic tees (one of my favorite forms of communication – e.g., here, here, or here), I came across an example of this that I think is worth sharing.

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