Thread by @ronaldnzimora

21 Lessons My Mentor Taught Me

Lesson 7: About Copyrights, NDAs and Protecting Your Ideas

Let's go.

#MentorDiaries

So there I was, red faced, steaming, my temperature rising, the bitter bile filling to my mouth. I was reading the newspaper, and there it was in full page, an advert selling my sweat, my hardwork.

God, I wanted to hit somebody.

But wait, let's go back to the genesis.

in 2009, I ans two friends had teamed up to form a loose partnership, 3RK, where we held live seminars and training sessions teaching people how to design websites, set up advertising accounts on Google and Facebook, etc.

At a point I didn't want to do the live events anymore...

It was just us repeating the same thing over and over, and frankly, hosting live events is exhausting. So I came up with the idea to record everything on video, put them on DVD and sell those instead.

My two partners agreed it was a great idea. So I spent the next one month...

recording the videos, editing them. We also recorded the last event and they were also part of the content. One of my partners, (we were using his office) had a DVD burner so we used that to copy the videos to DVD disks.

Shortly afterwards, our non ratified, non registered...

partnership ended and we went our separate ways, doing our separate things.

Imagine my shock then, when that morning I bought a copy of Success Digest, and in there was a full page advert advertising the same CDs I had laboured for nearly one month creating.

The feeling...

was horrible, my heart sank, then my blood boiled. One of my partners had gone ahead to claim the work as his and was selling it. I calmed down enough to send a message to the manager without whose approval that advert wouldn't have appeared explaining that this product wasn't...

his alone and he had no right claiming it and selling it as his own.

The paper the advert was published in was my mentor's paper. The manager was his employee. He responded by telling me he forwarded my email to my mentor and shortly I received a call asking me to come see him.

When I got there, he asked me to explain. So I did. The work was done by me, but because we were in a partnership, it rightfully belonged to the three of us.

My mentor looked at me and smiled, then got serious.

Here's the conversion that followed.

Dr. Ojeagbase: Ronalddiii!

Ronald: yes Sir.

Dr. Ojeagbase: This partnership you talked about, is it registered?

Ronald: No Sir (Now I knew I was in trouble with that answer)

Dr. Ojeagbase: Where was this video created?

Ronald: In his office.

Dr. Ojeagbase: His office! How can you prove you created...

it for the partnership?

Ronald: Sir, (Partner 3) can vouch for this, and his (offending partner) employees know I created it for our venture.

Dr. Ojeagbase: Ronalddiii!!!! Can you say categorically his employees will testify on your behalf?

Ronald: (SILENCE)

Dr. Ojeagbase: The previous monies you all collected for the sales, into whose account was it paid?

Ronald: Into his business account Sir.

Dr. Ojeagbase: Ronald, I am not saying you are not saying the truth, matter of fact, I believe you. However, the fact of the matter is...

you can prove nothing.

1. Your partnership is NOT registered.

2. The DVDs were created in his premises, so he can claim it as his.

3. You cannot get anyone else to testify aside Partner 3. he can get more than 1 person.

4. Previous sales were paid into his bank account!

"All evidence points to this being his. From all indications you did not do your due diligence well. You need to read and understand corporate law and copyright laws and understand how they work, so you can protect yourself in the future.

But here's what I will do."

So he...

got us three together and worked out a plan where this partner would buy us out based on the previous sales.

He said:

Dr. Ojeagbase: Ronald, simply take his offer, , and learn your lesson.

If you want to be a great business person, you must learn how to cover your flanks...

& protect your ideas."

Later on I met with Dr. Ibrahim Jimoh (via my mentor) and asked him this question. He told me a story echoing the same thing (I'll tell that story another day).

That day though I learned a great lesson: The law doesnt care about your feelings.

Peace 👍🏾