How Ideas Union Works: FAQ's

What is a ‘Comcept’ or ‘Idea’
A commercial concept (hence ‘Comcept’) that someone would normally expect to pay for.
The ‘Comcept’ does not have to be ‘patentable’, it just has to be an idea that the target company had not previously thought of, or can’t prove it had, that it would like to use. It might save them money on a logistics sense. It might be a great line / way to re-position their brand. It might be a way to lower HR costs. It doesn’t matter what the Comcept is, if they would normally be expected to pay for it, it should be paid for - not stolen.

Who is behind Ideas Union?
A group of Australian (mostly) creative professionals (from PR, marketing, engineering, IT, finance, ag science etc.) who’ve had commercially viable ideas stolen from them many times in the past by companies who often say things like ‘There’s 50 lawyers on level 7 – do you have deep pockets?’.

Why Global?
We have joined together to form the Ideas Union to prevent people like us from being ripped off. We know the problem is world-wide, and that companies will often take an idea from Australia, or the US, and use it in Brazil or Germany – so protection must be a global thing.

What’s the legal status of an idea?
An idea or Comcept itself is of value if it has a use that is commercial in nature. That means that someone else might buy it for profit from the inventor. The idea is yours. If they don’t want to pay for it, but use it after you have told them it’s your concept, then that’s a clear case of theft. Ideas Union will prosecute them for theft and damages.

What constitutes a ‘case’ to fight?
It’s answering YES to these basic questions ...
‘Is this theft? (Does our member have a claim on the ownership of the Comcept/idea?) and was it stolen from them? (Can we prove the idea was presented, they knew it was confidential, and they used the Comcept/idea without paying our member)
Can we win it? (Do our legal team think this is a case we can win? Ie, not ‘grey’ legally)
Can they pay if we do’ (Does this company have enough money or assets for us to be paid properly - obviously if they’ve gone broke or been wound up, then we have to pursue the previous owners – that is not an unusual thing to do anyway.)

Do I have to save everything?
The more that gets saved into your file on each ‘Comcept’ the easier it will be to prove you created your concept and the other guys did not. Almost all good ideas go through versions (so you should have evidence of its iterations, white board notes/drawings, early sketches, or meeting notes etc) and get presented to more than one company, (so meetings, emails, presentation versions, emails and texts following the presentation) the deeper and wider the evidence trail, the better to win your case.

Will Ideas Union become more user-friendly?
Yes, while the initial version is ‘drag and drop’, we expect our next iteration, which is due in hopefully only a short while, will be much more automated. Ideally in time we expect it to be a fully automated AI-driven App type system that just asks at the end of what it believes was (a conversation or meeting or doc sent,) related to your Comcept, that it asks you if you want that recorded on the relevant file. And if you discover they have stolen the idea, then our AI driven system finds the exact proof points, and creates a letter of demand for our member, so our member gets paid with little input needed by our Ideas Union investigative teams.

What about Patents?
Patenting is a global (sometimes just local) protection system for commercialising an idea. But you can’t take out a Patent if the idea is already in the public space – it can’t have already been commercialised / sold.
We strongly encourage members to pursue the Patenting route if it’s financially viable – do check with your Attorney. Because Ideas Union can only protect ideas up to the point of commercialisation. We protect against idea theft. We can’t protect against copying – which is what Patents do.
But caution - when you commence the Patent process you are telling the world about your idea. By definition it is a global broadcast of your concept for others to challenge. So be careful proceeding with Patenting.

Why “professionals” only?
It says ‘this is likely to be a quality idea’. Professional associations take great lengths to ensure members meet strict criteria. Certain degrees, possibly further tests, often requiring members to undertake regular career updating courses to maintain membership.
We believe in most professional association’s values and feel that we need to be confident that Ideas Union members are of a high standard, and besides, we the founders of Ideas Union, are members of our relevant professional associations. If we are to regularly win court cases, it sure would help if all members are of a required standard.
There are no exceptions. If you do not belong to a Professional Association, we simply do not want you as a member. Join your relevant association if you want to join Ideas Union.

What ‘professions’ will Ideas Union protect?
Accountants, advertising agents, agricultural consultants, architects, barristers, botanists, builders, cartographers, chefs, chemists, chemical engineers, chiropractors, copywriters, dieticians, designers, developers, doctors, electrical engineers, garden designers, horticulturalists, human resources, illustrators, inventors, IT consultants, lawyers, marketers, mechanical engineers, mediators, medical device makers, neuro-scientists, nurses, nutritionists, physio-therapists, policy writers, psychologists, public relations, occupational therapists, sculptors, software builders, surgeons, surveyors, systems designers, trainers, vets, writers, zoologists – if we have not mentioned your profession, please advise and we will add it.
Please note ‘real estate agents’, ‘sales managers’, ‘plumbers’, ‘office administrators’ even ‘CEO’s’ may think they are professionals, but hey, they ain’t.

Will big companies support Ideas Union?
Yes. They want certainty and would prefer good ideas not be taken to their competitors, so we fully expect almost all larger companies to welcome Ideas Union members and their Comcepts. Keep in mind it’s likely the bigger company will negotiate for the lion’s share of the profits, so there’s a reason for them to be interested. If they don’t see the idea, they can’t benefit from it. As Ideas Union members have our documentation (coming soon) to support their negotiations, things are easier for the larger company.

How does Ideas Union afford big legal costs?
We will have thousands of members paying from one to a few thousand a year for membership and their idea protection, so we will have millions ready to fight cases as they arise. We think we’ll almost always have more money than the opposing company. Understand that even if we can’t immediately afford a case, because the other side, (say a massive company), may be spending way more than us, then we obviously can’t proceed at that stage. But even with that unlikely situation, cases can still be fought months or years later, (large legal cases often takes years to process) so when Ideas Union can afford it, we will we be able prosecute on your behalf.

Will Ideas Union actually put people in jail for theft?
We can’t absolutely promise do that, as it’s often a police matter, but we will try hard. We can instigate Civil proceedings in most jurisdictions, (for ‘civil’ things like Loss or Damages, Breach of Contract, Breach of Confidence, Unconscionable behaviour, Abuse of market power, breaches of various Acts; depends on the jurisdiction) but in civil Court cases if it is proven that a person has committed a crime, say theft, the Court then is obliged to refer the situation to the police for criminal prosecution.
On behalf of members we promise to push the Authorities to prosecute to the full extent of the law on relevant issues such as theft, fraud, destruction of evidence, perjury (lying to the Court), even tax evasion or embezzlement, and there’s a host of other criminal proceedings that may come out of a Civil case.
The founders of the Ideas Union hate thieves and we want them punished and put behind bars. Help us do it.
It will spread fear amongst the corporate world and that will make them pay reasonable amounts to our members for their ideas.
The mere threat of senior management potentially going to jail is the reason almost all cases of this nature are settled before Court, and also because big companies do not want it on the public record that their people have stolen ideas.

How important is ‘prevention’ – putting them off stealing the idea?
We are advised by many that the main purpose of Ideas Union is not the prosecution of thieves, although that is the fun part. But our main role is to prevent companies stealing your commercial ideas. That our real role is to make companies happily do a deal with members so the member gets paid a reasonable amount for coming up with a Comcept the company can use.
This will mean lots more ideas are presented. So we expect to be helping great leaps forward in innovation across the globe. If you feel confident to present your ideas, and the company buying them feel good, safe that they won’t get sued, and they’ll have legal use of the Comcept, then we will hopefully see a significant rise in innovation itself, worldwide.

Is Ideas Union an Insurance Scheme?
No, IU is definitely not insurance. Insurance typically gives you certainty to a set of criteria – your car gets smashed /written off – you get X amount of money or the ‘market rate’ at the time. Ideas Union is very different. IU collectively will spend whatever it takes to protect our members and prosecute the thieves. But only if the idea is yours, the other company can’t prove it had already had it, they stole it, if they are capable of paying if we win etc. and we are using member’s collective funds to do that.

Why is Ideas Union a ‘For Profit’?
Because fundamentally we think a good idea should be profitable for the inventor. We’ve invented the concept – so we should be able to benefit from its operation. We must stick to our values, your values – that you deserve to be paid for your ideas. FYI, it won’t be so profitable…there’s a lot of costs running a business like Ideas Union.

If you have further questions, please contact us at Ideas Union - we are here to help.