Business Starting Grants

Is my business idea protected if I send it off to multiple companies while looking for start-up funds?

I went to send my business plan to people and corporations around the US to get funding for my plan. Can they go off and steal my idea? I haven't applied for any legal copyrights or anything...this is just on my own

Public Comments

1. Yes.
2. Only if you hold patent pendings on the plans.
3. You want to get a non-disclosure agreement with anyone you show your plan. Even then you're still not protected. I had a friend that had a business idea for improvements to an electronics store and he pitched it to them only to have them never call him again and implement his ideas as if they were their own.
4. you have to make sure to protect your ideas, before sending off anything, get the copyright to it patents if needed, and copies of anything you send to anyone that way you are protected. otherwise they can steal your ideas. better safe than sorry good luck
5. If you haven't got it copyrighted, then it's not protected. Copyrighting isn't a scam for the government to make money. They do a search to see if anyone else has an idea of such similarity that yours could be a plagiarism. Then if it is a unique idea, they would establish your precedence by giving you the copyright. That means if anyone else comes out with your idea, using your same methods, you can sue and win.
6. All idea's should be sent to yourself registered letter and when you get it, don't open it it will prove when you had the idea so at least some credibility will be lent to it
7. Ideas are not copyrightable, patentable, nor trademarketable. Anyone can steal any idea you pitch to them, no laws would be broken. A non-disclosure agreement is good, but a contract specifying that any ideas they obtain from you are yours alone and cannot be used without your permission might work better than just a non-disclosure alone. If they breach the contract you could sue them for breach of contract. See attorneys for help on this one, otherwise you would just be guessing.
8. You need a Non-disclosure agreement