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Are My Ideas Being Stolen? If So, What Then?

Posted by timothy on from the patent-your-own-idea-stealer dept.

BinaryGrind writes "I just got started taking Computer Science classes at my local university and after reading Universities Patenting More Student Ideas I felt I needed to ask: How do I tell if any of my projects while attending classes will be co-opted by my professors or the university itself and taken away from me? Is there anything I can do to prevent it from happening? What do I need to do to protect myself? Are there schools out there that won't take my work away from me if I discover TheNextBigThing(TM)? If it does happen is there anything I can do to fight back? The school I'm attending is Southern Utah University. Since it's not a big university, I don't believe it has a big research and development department or anything of that ilk. I'm mostly wanting to cover my bases and not have my work stolen from me."

4 of 508 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Only the paranoid survive (not) by dday376 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hey, I was gonna say that! That was totally my idea...

    --
    "C'mon freedom cage, roll me to safety!" - Philip J. Fry
  2. Sorry... by MyLongNickName · · Score: 5, Funny

    But your idea for a beer bong has already been taken. And don't even get me started on your ideas about transgendered midget porn.

    --
    See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
  3. Re:Only the paranoid survive (not) by Nerdfest · · Score: 5, Funny

    This idea was invented by Shampoo.

  4. Re:Only the paranoid survive (not) by Amazing+Quantum+Man · · Score: 5, Funny

    The old story (this is the Ford/Tesla version):

    Nikola Tesla visited Henry Ford at his factory, which was having some kind of difficulty. Ford asked Tesla if he could help identify the problem area. Tesla walked up to a wall of boilerplate and made a small X in chalk on one of the plates. Ford was thrilled, and told him to send an invoice.

    The bill arrived, for $10,000. Ford asked for a breakdown. Tesla sent another invoice, indicating a $1 charge for marking the wall with an X, and $9,999 for knowing where to put it.

    --
    Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.