Suppose you have invented a specific training technique that you want to protect. In that case the laws referred to earlier offer the possibility to register the designation of the training or the appearance of certain materials, but not the training method as such. Nevertheless you may wish to possess some evidence of your conception of this type of training. You might want to discuss a possible form of co-operation with a training institute, but at the same time to prevent that institute, after a discussion with you, from exploiting that idea themselves.
In that case, the I-depot enables you to record in the Benelux the date of creation of your idea and the identity of the designer. While you cannot derive any Intellectual Property Rights from such a deposit, the document will serve as an instrument to prove at which point in time you conceived the idea. In our example, it will enable you to provide evidence to underpin a possible action against the training institute.
But even if your idea is so unique that it carries copyright, the I-depot is a useful additional document to prove the date of the work’s conception.
We can establish an I-depot on your behalf. To that end, you need only to elaborate your idea on paper or other data carrier, such as a cd-rom. Just provide us with two copies of such documentation, and we take care of everything else.
We will send one copy in a closed envelope back for you to keep as such and to store carefully, to keep the contents secret. A second envelope will be taken in care by the official Benelux authorities.
You may establish the deposit for five years or at once for ten years. The storage term can be renewed by an indefinite number of further five-year terms. When no further prolongation is requested, the second copy will be destroyed by the Benelux authorities.