An Idea I Don't Want Other People To Be Able To Capitalize On

34 replies
How do I do it..? I've come up with a f*cking unbelievable full-body exercise that builds muscle like nothing else and, at the same time, can be used to lose weight - again, like nothing else - or train cardio.

I'm scared if I start selling this someone might steal the idea and make big bucks off of it. How do I keep that from happening..? Thanks in advance
#capitalize #idea #people
  • Profile picture of the author GeorgR.
    write your ebook NOW. And consult a lawyer.

    I am not a lawyer, but if you write about your exercises in an e-book you automatically should have the copyright? Someone else simply cannot take whatever you write and claim it as their own??
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    • Care to share?

      It really depends where you are. I have looked into this kind of thing myself and found out that it depends on where you are. Here in Germany, for example, you have to go to a notary, who can legally affirm that you have indeed come up with whatever it is you came up with. Of course, if someone does rip you off, you would have to go to court, but a piece of paper with a notaries signature goes a long way.

      Even then, if the plagiarists change enough to satisfy the court, you are screwed. This is a problem many information products have.

      If you are looking for general information on copyrights, this is a good place to start.

      ezinearticles(dot)com/?Copyright---What-Does-Copyright-Protect?&id=3104031

      Please note that I am in no way affiliated with the site that hosts or author that wrote the article ;-)
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      • Profile picture of the author Chris Grable
        Consulting a lawyer is the right answer. I suspect, however, that you are not going to be able to protect an exercise... An ebook about the exercise... sure. But not the exercise itself, unless it requires a special piece of equipment that can be patented.

        If I'm right... then all you can do is prepare a marketing blitz... (be sure to have all the players sign non-disclosure and non-compete agreements). Make all you can ($$) before the copycats descend on your business model. Maybe by that time, you will have branded yourself as THE expert and will have second product ready to roll out.

        Good luck!
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  • Profile picture of the author tbjason
    Here is what I have put into practice over the years. I had many of the same thoughts!

    NEVER Be Afraid - If you are afraid of someone ripping you off it will only set you back and you will procrastinate for a long time.

    Make the product and do it with as little people involved as possible. No madder what there is always going to be the need to get someone involved but you just have to have faith in them.

    Go For It and Don't Look Back!!!
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  • Profile picture of the author Rob Howard
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    • Profile picture of the author Damien Roche
      Originally Posted by ccmusicman View Post

      Competition is a good thing - it is one of the driving forces of innovation and invention.
      So true. Imagine there were no competition? What a stale world we would live in.

      To the OP: Lawyer, NOT random people on the internet.
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      • Profile picture of the author Chris Grable
        Originally Posted by Damien Roche View Post

        Lawyer, NOT random people on the internet.
        Come on now Damien... With an infinite number of random people on the internet, typing on their keyboards... one of them WILL eventually type the right answer.... or at least "War and Peace".
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        • Profile picture of the author Damien Roche
          Originally Posted by Chris Grable View Post

          Come on now Damien... With an infinite number of random people on the internet, typing on their keyboards... one of them WILL eventually type the right answer.... or at least "War and Peace".
          No, I'm sorry, I just don't think it's advisable to take advice on legal matters from people who aren't legal professionals. Fact is, how are you to know it's the RIGHT answer if you're not a lawyer yourself?
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          • Profile picture of the author Bill Farnham
            Simon,

            A scarcity mindset puts you in the hole right from the start. Try believing your product will be so successful thousands of people will be able to make money selling your product and you will get a piece of the action from everyone of them.

            You need a sales force. You alone can't sell to everyone who could use your product, you need a sales team. And you can't build your product to handle mass sales if you start off by trying to make sure no one else benfits financially from it. You need to plug the 'sales' equation in from the get-go.

            Learn to think big. Change your goal from "if I start selling this someone might steal the idea and make big bucks off of it" to "I want to make this product so easy to sell everyone will want to sell it". And since you created the vehicle that allows them to easily be your affiliate you won't need to worry about the inevitable copy cats as you will have made more money using a sales force than you ever could have trying to sell it all by yourself.

            ~Bill
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          • Profile picture of the author Chris Grable
            Originally Posted by Damien Roche View Post

            No, I'm sorry, I just don't think it's advisable to take advice on legal matters from people who aren't legal professionals. Fact is, how are you to know it's the RIGHT answer if you're not a lawyer yourself?
            Damien, re-read my post... it was a joke... you know... written with my tongue in my cheek....

            We are both showing our age.... or something.... I'm obviously referring to "The Infinite Number of Monkey Theorem".... maybe I am just too old....
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  • Profile picture of the author Damien Roche
    Oh..and to add a little value I guess:

    You have an incredible advantage right now if this truly is as revolutionary as you say.

    One way to CRUSH competition if you are a 'first mover' is to make it almost impossible to duplicate (i.e. good usp, LOTS of work, etc etc).

    Another idea, though a bit more abstract, is to prepare to saturate the market yourself. Weird I know, but it can work. What you do is roll out your major product, then roll out a ton more (timing is important) under other pen names and literally saturate the market with YOUR products. Then, when competition does arrive, they have a hell of a lot to compete with.
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  • Profile picture of the author MisterMunch
    Why are you scared that other people make big money? The thing you should focus on is making big money for yourself.

    By protecting your idea and hiding it, you are not making one cent on it at all. If however you make the product, and label it with your personality, you will own this exercising method. There will always be ripp offs but people will in most cases remember the origin and continue to want to learn more from you.

    My tip is make the routine synonym with yourself, and it would be thougher for others to sell the idea. At least without mentioning you as the creator.
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    • Profile picture of the author butters
      It's already done... I guarantee your unbelievable method is already out there and being sold already. That industry is such a lucrative business, they have paid the scientists, doctors, who ever you consult to tell them exactly what works best and paid millions and millions testing them methods.
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  • Profile picture of the author ADVERTISINGGUERRILLA
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    • Profile picture of the author Midas3 Consulting
      There are a number of full body exercise programs out there,
      some of them brilliantly well put together and branded.

      Turbulence Training for example, very good quality, really
      well marketed products.

      Burn The Fat, Tom Venuto's primary product recently had
      a promotion whereby you received an additional report
      which was specifically about burning fat and gaining muscle
      mass and it has has a major author behind it, a ton of science
      and is beautifully put together.

      It's great you're really motivated and pumped, you need that
      attitude but be aware you've not suddenly come across
      the holy grail that defies the basic tenets that to be in serious
      shape, you have to train consistently and keep your diet tight.

      Go for your product , make it happen, there's room for
      everybody in that niche my advice for what it's worth
      would be to find something utterly unique you can market it around.

      Give it a USP, give it something that will allow JV's. Position
      yourself as the go-to guy for that sub niche of the workout
      market.

      Make sure you brand it, the more you brand it the harder
      it is for somebody to copy it.

      Think Beach Body, Turbulence Training, Fat Burning Furnace,
      and so on.

      You'll never stop somebody copying an exercise program but if
      your primary concept in the program is a USP and you brand it
      hard, you can certainly make it very hard and even pointless
      for somebody to bother.
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      • Profile picture of the author JoshuaG
        The other thing you have to remember is that market exposure is never 100%.

        Would you believe that I know people who have never seen STAR WARS?

        One of the biggest cultural phenomenons in North America and there are many people who have never even seen it!

        Products and services are like this too.

        There is often plenty of room in a market selling the same product as someone else, its all about positioning yourself effectively.
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        • Profile picture of the author Lee Wilson
          Originally Posted by JoshuaG View Post


          Would you believe that I know people who have never seen STAR WARS?

          One of the biggest cultural phenomenons in North America and there are many people who have never even seen it!
          And I'm one of them.
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  • Profile picture of the author Steve Ranger
    Already done.

    It's called callisthenics - I'm releasing a product on it as well.

    Sorry dude. It will become pretty big as well I predict.
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  • Profile picture of the author Ilya Feynberg
    Talk a lawyer no doubt...if it's that important to you and that big, then pay the money to talk to a lawyer to see your options. Though I'm not entirely sure that you can really do much to spread a particular type of exercise from spreading around to many copy cats when it and if it does spread. You can protect your brand, your company and marketing materials, but not the idea of the exercise I don't think. Either way, talk to a lawyer.
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  • Profile picture of the author leotuzi
    I guess I should say I'm not a lawyer, but I've had over a decade of experience owning businesses. And, here's what I've learned. The sooner you get it out there the better.

    And, when you do people will rip it off...just like they rip off everything else. Just look at all the IM products out there.

    So, get it out there and make some money before someone else does something similar.

    Hopefully, your marketing will be on point and you'll establish yourself as an expert. You only want a piece of the pie...if the pie is big enough.

    Good luck!
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  • Profile picture of the author Emily Meeks
    An Idea You Don't Want Other People to Capitalize On, eh?

    Even though I read the whole thread, I didn't need to - right off the bat I can tell you that that's Not Gonna Happen.

    If it's a human need or want to ANY extent, very many somebodys are going to make money off of it. As ccmusicman said...
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  • Profile picture of the author Rob Whisonant
    Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer but this is most likely what one would tell you in my opinion.

    The exercise itself would not be considered a creative work, so it could not be copyrighted. The way you present it in "tangible" form could be copyrighted.

    Re's
    Rob Whisonant
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  • Profile picture of the author sebas
    First off, not to burst your bubble, but I don't believe you have this crazy new thing.

    Want to know why? Because the body is not a computer, it can't improve by adding new undiscovered stuff. It was designed over millions of years to perform well when sleeping enough, having low levels of stress, eating natural foods (meat and vegies mainly), lifting heavy things from time to time, resting and finally running fast from time to time.

    Lifting heavy things means squats, dead lifts, bench presses, dips, pullups or any other movement natural to the human body.

    Of course, something that taxes the cardio-vascular system and the muscle fibers at the same time can be a good thing, but we've been doing it since before we discovered fire. Most sports require both speed and strength.

    Sorry for being so passionate about that, but it's just my 2 cents. Of course, it doesn't mean you can't make money with it. I personally think that 99.5% of health products out there are BS, but yet they make tons of money.

    As for your question, you're out of luck. The only way to protect an idea is to patent it. Good luck with that! Copyrights are only that, rights to your copy. People can't take your exact wording, but they can certainly take your idea and put it an other way. This is how we evolve in fact.

    Other than that, I think others have said it right, get it out as fast as you can and make it clear in your marketing that you are the s**t. If nothing else, often times competition can even bring more awareness to your product sometimes because they spread to word about this particular idea for you.

    I also wanted to add, that in your favor, the first to be in a market usually wins. In fact, it's the first law of marketing in Ries & Trouts' 22 immutable laws of marketing: The law of leadership. This law tells us that it's better to be first than it is to be better. Everybody knows the first man to fly over the Atlantic, Charles Lindbergh. Who knows about the second one? Yet he did it much faster! I hope this kind of cheers you up a bit.
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    • Profile picture of the author butters
      Originally Posted by sebas View Post


      Want to know why? Because the body is not a computer, it can't improve by adding new undiscovered stuff. It was designed over millions of years to perform well when sleeping enough, having low levels of stress, eating natural foods (meat and vegies mainly), lifting heavy things from time to time, resting and finally running fast from time to time.
      Err... What? So if it can't be improved by "undiscovered stuff" then how has our life span gone form like 40-50 to 80-100? Even a simple thing like a bicep curl was discovered and now regularly used. Also I believe scientists refer to our brain as a super computer, just to put it in simple terms for us to understand. Of course our body can be improved by undiscovered things, why do I say that, well it's simple, we don't understand the human body fully so there is still lots of potential.
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  • Profile picture of the author VeitSchenk
    think about it: Eben Pagan made millions (tens of millions?) in the Dating niche.
    anything new there? not really. And still made his millions.
    just go out, market the heck out of it, make sure you've got a great USP (like someone pointed out above).
    Rich Schefren I believe will always try to get a celebrity to back the product (I think Dan Kennedy does pretty much the same) -- leverage their pull with your target audience and you're all set.
    forget about the whole legal side of things (unless you have millions in your account to actually go through with legal action....) -- I've worked in corporate long enough to know that suing others rarely gives you what you want.
    just go for it!

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  • Profile picture of the author willmartinapj
    Originally Posted by Simon Haestoe View Post

    How do I do it..? I've come up with a f*cking unbelievable full-body exercise that builds muscle like nothing else and, at the same time, can be used to lose weight - again, like nothing else - or train cardio.

    I'm scared if I start selling this someone might steal the idea and make big bucks off of it. How do I keep that from happening..? Thanks in advance
    You can either put it out and make what you can from it or be too scared to do nothing at all. But eventually it will come out regardless if you do it or not.

    I believe thoughts and ideas are always in the air. When you receive it go for it or else it will leave you and someone else will discover it
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  • Profile picture of the author ryanbiddulph
    Hi Simon,

    4 words: stop worrying about it. Worry tends to attract situations which make whatever you worry about come true. Move into action on it now.

    You have a creative idea. Build an awesome, content rich marketing campaign and get the word out. No matter what you do, even if you adopt rights to the idea, people will adopt the idea if it's good and put some type of spin on it, and if they are creative enough they'll be making the money which you should have now if you started acting when you were inspired. There's no limit on creative ideas.

    All the best with your venture!

    Ryan
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    • Profile picture of the author Simon Haestoe
      First of all.. thanks! Wow. A lot of people helping .

      I don't think I'm going to make this an e-book. Someone on this forum said that people don't want ebooks anymore - that they want answers to their questions. That sounded fresh, and I thought I would base this on that. Not sure how, but I'm sure someone here has an idea. Another reason, I'm not aiming at making an e-book, is because this exercise would be best explained by a video. Or, like, ten words. Writing a book about something that could be explained in ten words is pretty useless. And, what gives you the results with this exercise is if you follow the same principles that gives you results in anything else. That is as easy as anything to explain - so a book would only be rambly.

      I want to, first of all - even though it isn't first of all - say that I made this thread just after coming up with this exercise. So it was all passion (and not so much being rational). I think that passion is important, though. It's what opens up someone to really achieve - because it lets you believe. I felt a huge possibility when I saw the results, in real time. It's true I didn't contemplate everything - and was more focused on the muscles that grew like baloons even though I pretty much didn't do anything - but **** it.. I'm really, really depressed so getting that passion is going to really help me -- it was what got me into this make-money-online-thing - the drive to do my own thing - and it's been lost for a long while, so.

      I think it's important to look for possibility. There's always not possibility but here's always possibility as well. The question is how you make it possible. You can look at the downsides of something, focus on them, if you want to - or you can look at what could be done.

      But, yes, I wasn't being rational so I think Im going to try and get the passion back for this exercise, and for bringing it out, and then figure out the way to do it best.

      "and if they are creative enough they'll be making the money which you should have now if you started acting when you were inspired" <---- we think alike. Cool. Yeah, I do have to get that inspiration back -- I really believe it's going to produce the results for me (and that the lack of it will make me fail). At least that's been my experience in pretty much everything else I've succeeded in -- that there's a point you have to reach, a threshold you have to breach, burn all bridges and all that to get the necessary momentum to get insane results.


      About the "get a sales team", I'm thinking of that. Planning it.
      What I'm thinking of is telling people I know, and trust, about the exercise and let them try it. I'm pretty sure they will have awesome results - and if they don't I will make sure I help them until they get them; as getting results from an exercise is inevitable if you do the things that produce results. What would then happen is they are passionate about this exercise - because it's awesome. These people would be sales people who truly burn for the thing they sell -- can't hurt! I know from my own experience, of meeting them, that sales people who don't (burn) creep me out. It's just strange.

      I'm also going to kind of make people sales people without them realizing it lol. Going to have a regular prize and then one/a few lower prices that they get if they can get other people to buy. If, for example, you have a sister who wants to lose weight and is lazy - this is perfect. If you have a little brother who wants to get big muscles fast but has not money to go to a gym - perfect. Super easy to get those two people. And if then someone buys it, and likes it, they could perhaps tell people at their job to buy it - and if they do they get whatever 60% of the profit for doing so. And I'm going to ask everyone who buys if they want to become a sales person for me. And pay them, I dunno, 60% or something of the profit if they do.

      About the discount they get for bringing a few people... It would be really cool if one person told three people, then those three told three people each and so on. A lot of people being told. But after I got that idea I questioned when the sales are going to happen if everyone has to prove they have other people willing to buy before getting the product? And, to fix this, another thing mentioned in this thread could come in handy -- the market blitz (was that the term?). I would simply get as many people interested as possible - and those people would tell other people - and then get it all done as quickly as I can. It would be cool if it worked.

      By the way, I got inspired by Tim Gorman - in reading the testimonals, and thread, about his 37$ article marketing product (forgot the name of it). The service seemed amazing, with 30 days email support (which he later extended to unlimited; ridiculously awesome). I would like to do this - to answer any question that anyone has about the exercise.

      I'm tired.. I better sleep. Goodnight and thanks once again!
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      • Profile picture of the author Simon Haestoe
        Forgot to mention it: ccmusic man, can I buy your list building product? Can't PM you but maybe we can work it out anyway.
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        • Profile picture of the author Rob Howard
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          • Profile picture of the author Aussie_Al
            Matt Furey has made millions on the build muscle / burn fat exercise programs

            His ideas are 1000's years old - but he just has a fresh spin on them plus his great personality

            I made a pretty unique (for its Niche) Info-product in fact most people would be hard pressed to imitate it convincingly and a quick search online I found plenty of those file sharing sites where people had ripped it and put it up for others to STEAL

            Does it still sell? yes of course it does

            Once you put something up online - despite any legal safe guards you set up - you will get ripped off - that's just the way it is

            Its like being a department store , no matter how many electronic cameras and store detectives you hire some one will still always steal from you - its human nature

            All you can do is offer great customer service, OVER DELIVER and have your customers come back for more time and time again
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            • Profile picture of the author Simon Haestoe
              Aussie Al: AWESOME. That overdelivering works is one of the most grounding, awesome things I can think about...

              "Once you put something up online - despite any legal safe guards you set up - you will get ripped off - that's just the way it is" <--- so real it hurts. thanks for telling the truth man. That's all I have to say.
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  • Profile picture of the author James Fried
    The most successful people that I have studied on line have given and given and given without worrying about protecting their proprietary information.

    If you came up with one great idea, then you can probably come up with 100s more.

    People will steal your ideas but, ultimately, the people who steal ideas will not win in the end.
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    • Profile picture of the author Simon Haestoe
      More realness coming there James... and that's exactly what I found as well. how much joy can they get out of STEALING other people's stuff? much of the excitement lies in the creation. and a lot of it lies in seeing the sales coming in - even though I haven't made a sale of anything yet I know it because it's true in everything - for something you have WORKED HARD FOR. Working hard is awesome and should not be underestimated. It's valuable in itself.
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  • Profile picture of the author Scott Ames
    You'll patent it, copyright it, get all sorts of legal protection, and someone will upload the whole thing to file sharing sites and disks will be mass produced in China for sale cheaper. In addition 6 new eBooks selling the same method will appear on Clickbank.

    That would make me mad and I'm guessing you too, but as others have advised, just go make money with it and forget the thieves and copycats. It worked for Eben and Matt Fury and they have enough money to do as they wish.
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