Clearly rights and the laws relating to defining and controlling ownership, especially for commercial gain, are very involved. To complicate matters further, objects, designs, artistic works and inventions can involve, and be protected by, several different sorts of rights at once. To add yet another layer of complexity, laws and levels of protection vary from country to country.

Copyright is the easiest of all rights to acquire. If your product is protected by copyright then you should get protection in many different countries under the Berne Convention and the Universal Copyright Convention. It's cheap, easy and immediate!

However, this only guarantees that you will get whatever level of protection is available in the country in question. It is still necessary to be informed of the copyright laws applicable wherever you intend to trade.

So what can you do? Begin by doing some detailed research - will probably answer most of your questions and throw up a few unexpected facts as well.

Next, seek professional advice. Local business services, business link offices and agencies should be able to point you in the right direction if you need information or guidance. Your local library and the Internet can also be a mine of information.

There are also a few more things you can do to protect yourself from losing your rights:

• The first is to record all of your ideas by expressing them in an appropriate and permanent medium as soon as you can. In other words write them down, record them onto audio, video or film, store them in a computer file, build a prototype or model... just make sure that they exist is some real and tangible form.

Once you have made your idea a reality in some respect, always put a Copyright notice on it.

If Copyright is not applicable, then Performance Rights or Design Rights may apply, depending upon your work and country of origin. Failing all of the above, check to see if you can get a Registered Design or better still (and more widely recognised) Patents. This is where it can start to cost real, serious and ongoing money.

If you are selling something, you can consider registering Trademarks and trying to develop your own brand (always bearing in mind that the extent to which this is going to work will depend upon your product or service).

• The second thing to do is to think sneaky and take extra precautions! This is especially important in the case of ideas which may gain a Patent in the future...

Here's how you can do it for next to nothing:

1. Firstly you should record your ideas as discussed above
2. Then put a copy of the work, design and/or invention (if it's not too large) into the post, addressed to yourself. You can also include a copy of the day's newspaper in the package as well. Always keep a duplicate of the contents before doing this. Also make sure that the package is secure and write a code on the outside so that you can identify the contents at a later date. Select a delivery service that not only offers insurance against loss, but also provides a timed and dated delivery with a signature
3. Get a receipt when you hand over the package and for the cash paid for the service. Keep everything safe with the package when it arrives. Be in to sign for the package.

What you will then have is the following things:

A copy of your product sealed in a package that has been delivered through the mail

1. A postage stamp on the package, dating when the package was posted
2. A receipt for the postage paid, to send the package, and hopefully a record of the time and date of the payment on it
3. A record of the time, date and signature when the package was delivered and of the delivery service used. [This is often retained by the postal service provider]
4. Additional proof of the day of posting - in the newspaper!

In short you will have an almost fireproof record of when you definitely had the idea. Although this proves you had the idea, it does not prove that somebody else stole it from you or that they didn't develop it independently. What it does do is give some tangible evidence towards your case, but it doesn't guarantee you'll win.

The trick is to keep the package and postal receipts together in a very safe place. On no account open the sealed package. Packages can be given to a solicitor or stored in a safety-deposit box - which offers the least risk of the package being 'accidentally' opened.

In the event of a dispute over an idea's ownership, especially after you have disclosed it in good faith to a potential backer or collaborator, you can open the package in court and try to prove your case.

Each time you update your idea or make a new development or improvement to it, repeat the above process. Being able to demonstrate the chronology of how you developed the idea over time can only add weight to your argument.

If you are going to give your idea, sealed in a package, to a solicitor or anybody else then think sneaky too! How well do you really know them? What do you know about their financial or family situation? What habits do they have? What happens to your documents if they go out of business? What if there's a fire or a burglary? Carefully consider all the potential pitfalls first...

• The third and very best thing you can do is to exploit your ideas commercially before somebody else does: it is very hard indeed to state that you invented the wheel first, when all around you are wheels in everyday use with somebody else's brand name and Trademark on them!