I posted a query on a message board of a group I belong to called Wordpool regarding ideas and patenting them and I thought I'd continue the discussion here. Incidentally Wordpool is a useful place to visit if you're interested in children's writing. That and The Society for Children's Book Writers and Illustrators are useful associations. So too is the Society of Authors, while we're on the subject. They're particularly good,especially if you want your contract vetted. Some very helpful people there.
Getting back to my thoughts on ideas and patenting them. I'm raising the issue because of the Dan Brown case which happened recently, and also, because of a case I heard about linked to Blockbusters (the video store). They were being sued by another DVD internet company that claimed Blockbusters had stolen/ copied their business model for internet rentals with no late fees.
So, now I pose the question whether original ideas are worth patenting. Apparently businesses are now doing this in order to insure against their ideas being stolen, and I wondered whether given the Da Vinci Code case, writers would or should follow suit. Is there such a thing as an original idea?
Some may think not. I'm not sure.
McDonalds food chain would certainly disagree, not that I'm comparing writing to fast food- far from it, but how would any of us feel if our plots were used in another book? I just pose the question.
I know lots of people get inspiration from others and lots believe that there are a limited number of plots for books, but I'd be interested to know what you think.... especially given that, I believe, a third of the UK's trade to overseas is now in ideas services i.e: the ideas are created here and companies overseas manufacture the goods. Is this the way things are going? We provide the ideas and someone else writes the book? or is this already happening?
