The applicants have little protection when something resembling their idea materialises on screen. The dot com start-up TVtoBe was launched in March. Kiaron Finnegan, the company's managing director and a former TV producer, had an idea to create a database for TV proposals, where producers could securely register their ideas. But we do have a record of the broadcasters or commissioning editors that read an idea on file, when, and how long they spent reading it. Such a concept could not have existed without the Internet.
Ideas alone are a meaningless piece of intellectual property.
Formats are the lifeblood of the creative producer, and these should not be confused with ideas.