Question

• How can you protect your IT product or service idea? What are the consequences if you do not take the legal procedure required to protect your IT product or service idea? Search and discuss if there is any difference between IT products and other products in terms of legal protection issues.
• It is a general rule that you should cite your reference sources when you are borrowing ideas from other authors. Why is this important and what are the consequences if you do not cite your reference sources? There are technical tools to help in detecting plagiarism. Can such tools be used to detect borrowed ideas? If yes, give examples.
• Can you use the research paper written by you for a previous class as a reference for your current research? Why or why not? Is this considered self-plagiarism? What is meant by self-plagiarism?
• As a desktop help desk support specialist, you discovered a new way to prevent hackers from breaking into company networks while working for a telecommunication company. Is it ethical for you to sell your discovery to an IT security company without the permission from your employer? Why or why not? How can employers protect their legal rights?

Answer 1

IT products and services idea can vary. Depending on the idea there are several ways to protect them. Some of the well-known method of legal protection are

• Copyrights
• Trademarks
• Patents

However, if the IT product is purely software or mathematical formula then the idea cannot be legally protected. This is especially true for software and IT products that are solely software and does not contain technical component. In such situation, the best approach to protect an IT product is through making the software or IT product/service inimitable.

If we do not take the legal procedure there is always a risk that the IT product/services will be copied by competitors or the others.