I keep having ideas for all kinds of things from advertising presentations, to book or film ideas, and I have always wanted to try and present them to an investment company, but I am worried about them turning me down, but then turning around and using the idea for themselves. I assume I need to become my own business, but I figured I would inquire to the yahoo answers community and see what you guys have to say, thanks again!.--Answer1:well if its an idea i would get the patented first..but if its a book deal or movie thing u could have them sign a confidentiality agreement and if they sale ur idea to someone and can prove they stole it then u can sue them bc they signed the paper.--Answer2:That is a tough one . I was just thinking about the same thing yesterday. What if you printed the information and had it either copyrighted or notarized .People have stolen a lot of my material and used it for their own lately . I have a small business and other businesses steal my information and copy my ideas ..--Answer3:The real world is, you cant. Often we bounce ideas off of people (especially people we respect) to get their input. I invented a gadget one time and a friend of mine, ask if he could use the idea. I answered, sure, I have plenty more. Not exactly smart as he is making thousands and thousands of dollars off my idea! Someone mentioned patents. I done that and there is a hell of a lot more to it than one would think but back to the subject matter. One of the engineering/scientific magazines I subscribe to, advocated filing a patent on everything. Thats pretty safe but expensive. Hope this helps but I would need about two hours of your time to answer your question.