Can a producer poach ideas from prospective employees?

September 5, 2006 11:43 PM

What rights--if any--do you retain when you pitch ideas during a job interview?

My boyfriend recently applied for a position at a production company specializing in documentaries. As part of the interview process, he was asked to pitch original serial and feature-length documentaries, and provided about 15 ideas over the course of two interviews.

During the second interview, the company's executive producer mentioned he had especially high hopes for one of the pitches, and he wanted to send it to his agent. If the idea sold and the exec hired him, my boyfriend would end up producing his own documentary.

Which would ordinarily be great. Except that the producer then hired another candidate for the position.

Ideas can't be copyrighted, but is it kosher for a producer to take a job candidate's pitch and try to sell it himself? Does my boyfriend retain any rights--either to the idea, or to any profit that may eventually result if the producer successfully sells and executes the idea? Since he'll probably be going on many more interviews like this, how can he keep his ideas from being poached? And any tips on dealing with the producer without burning any bridges?

posted by serialcomma to media & arts (11 comments total)

IADefinitelyNAL but If your boyfriend could somehow prove prior art or that he had the idea originally, in some certifiable manner, and also that the interview did occur with the infringer in question, there might be some basic defense. It would be expensive and awkward to pursue, but if it became massive or something, you can't just say "I had that idea first, and told him about it and now he's making money." See: why I can't claim I invented the mouse. Or the wheel. Or the internets.

If I had mailed the idea to myself via certified mail and never opened it, so goes the rumor that's almost certainly false, I could claim to have a dated record of when I first had the original idea. Better yet, notarized copy. Or a submission to a copyright service, etc.

You get the idea.
posted by disillusioned at 12:08 AM on September 6, 2006

This came up when Nick Sylvester wrote a [now-infamous] story for the Village Voice on pick-up artists. A blogger claimed that she had pitched the same idea to the EIC of the Voice about a month and a half before. That kind of got lost in the furor about Sylvester fabricating parts of the article. However, if you read the comments in the last link, multiple people mention having their pitches ripped off by well-known media outlets.

I would guess it's fairly common, and that there's very little one can do to protect oneself. But that's not legal advice, and a lawyer I am not.
posted by anjamu at 12:33 AM on September 6, 2006

He's SOL.

Even if you could prove he came up with the idea first, there's nothing legally binding about it.

In situations like this it's absolutely essential to not give out ideas you're really keen on, as much as it might help you for the interview. Once you tell them to someone, they're no longer yours unless there's some additional contract (NDA or such, and good luck getting a prospective interviewer to sign one of those).

If your boyfriend doesn't feel totally screwed by the producer, I'd follow up with a phone call/letter basically saying "Hey, it looks like you really liked [idea X which I gave to you] and I like what you've done with it. I have some other ideas which would be great for your company, so let's work together" (emphasis: work)

Kosher? Doubtful, but I wouldn't expect it to be.
posted by 0xFCAF at 12:51 AM on September 6, 2006

Without any proof (audio tape of the interview would be a start) he is basically SOL. One person's word against another's, really.

To me, sounds like a great slimy way to get documentary ideas if you're stumped. Sucks, but the world sucks.
posted by antifuse at 2:26 AM on September 6, 2006

This is such a common practice nobody who's worked in TV would even blink at the idea. Yes, people in the media exploit interviewees for ideas, then they give the job to a friend. I could even be persuaded they do it sometimes when there isn't even a vacancy. I say chalk it up to experience.
posted by AmbroseChapel at 3:00 AM on September 6, 2006

Try a preemptive defense "Yeah, I expected you'd ask that, so yesterday I came up with a bunch of new ideas and yesterday I posted them on my not-famous-but-not-wholly-unread-in-our-industry blog".

Of course, the interviewer will ask for the blog url, so you should actually have had posted them. (But bonus for the technically inclined, or those able to hire the technically inclined: there are several methods to post the pitches on your blog so that they are visible to potential employers, but not to the general public. For obvious reasons, I won't go into specific methods here.)
posted by orthogonality at 4:47 AM on September 6, 2006

You can't copyright an idea, only the fixed expression thereof- your boyfriend has no rights to the way someone else fixes the expression of his idea. The interview brain-pick is unsavory, but common and legal. Never pitch your heart's true project- bring your highly polished, truly fantastic second-best ideas to the interviews, and pitch them knowing that you won't be at the production helm. (Then when you are, it's a nice surprise!)
posted by headspace at 5:20 AM on September 6, 2006

Consider filing a provisional patent application before making any disclosure. There is a book called "Patent it Yourself" by Pressman for reference.

It does not require very technical documentation, and can be in ordinary descriptive language. The fee is only $50, but you must file for real within a year.

No matter what you say before hand, employers don't like employees filing their own patent applications in related fields while under their employ.

If you walk in having already filed, that filing date could become an asset to your employers.
posted by StickyCarpet at 9:10 AM on September 6, 2006

Ideas are explicitly non-patentable. To be patentable, you need (among other things) a non-obvious invention. Documentary pitches would rarely be considered non-obvious ("It's Ken Burns 'Baseball', with a twist!"), are ideas, and are not inventions. So no soap.

It's also a hell of a lot of time and money to go through the process even for something that is eligible. Someone who's got dough to spare for patenting 15 documentary "inventions" at a time is probably wealthy enough to self-finance production of their best idea instead of having to make a bunch of pitches to someone else's production company.

Writers have to deal with this all the time. Ideas aren't protected intellectual property. But once those ideas are committed to some "tangible" (e.g. written) and original form, they can become copywritable and WGA registerable.

The simplest thing is to carry your pitches in a written *cough*automaticcopywrite*cough format, along with a short NDA form. When invited to pitch, grab your pitch "notes" and say "I've got a bunch to tell you about. Just sign right here..." If someone refuses the NDA, consider yourself warned. Hollywood's legitimate producers are extremely aware of the legal issues and take them seriously.
posted by nakedcodemonkey at 10:38 AM on September 6, 2006

Sorry to jump on the SOL bandwagon, but... All this patent/copyright/mail-it-to-yourself stuff is, alas, null, void and goofy. Don't do it. In TV-land, ideas are chicken feed, and any attempt to copyright them or retroactively get authorship looks pathetic to outsiders (and future employers), even though it may make you feel better. As the chestnut goes, "Ideas are easy." (And for goshsakes, don't make anyone sign any forms! Recipe for a very short meeting.) It sucks, it's probably illegal, but it's the way it goes. The only remedy is to (A) only do business with legit people, or (B) only pitch really expensive ideas.

However...

1. If it was a genuine pitch meeting, and the producer "stole" your bf's (truly unique, not-readily-obvious-to-a-documentary-producer) idea, then he has a case. Not a legal one (unless it was, like, an episode of "Lost," and millions are at stake), but certainly a moral one that deserves a phone call to ask the producer, "WTF?."

2. I'm not sure if this is the exact case from the text of your question, but it does appear genuinely slimy that the dude hired someone else to produce the very show that your bf pitched, and so close to the time that he pitched it. Again, deserving of a call-out -- something this douche-y needs to be broadcast.

3. If the other person was simply hired for the job your bf was interviewing for -- but was not assigned the specific show that he pitched -- then you're worrying about nothing and (sorry to be so blunt) wasting our time.
posted by turducken at 2:03 PM on September 6, 2006

turducken is right. (Sorry, I kind of missed the more inside.)

If you want to be an "idea man" you need to be an eternal font. Robin Williams didn't get jobs because of one funny joke, and has had many individual jokes stolen, but he's still the guy.

If you have the one great idea, then start producing it.
posted by StickyCarpet at 7:45 PM on September 6, 2006