Q: Are the notes you write down in the notes app on iPhones considered public information? Let’s say a developer
for example- he wrote the code for a smart contract that lets you buy and sell and store energy in a decentralized environment that connects all Tesla vehicles then a couple weeks later the guy is watching YouTube and comes across a video that talks about how Elon musk has been secretly working on a decentralized system that connects all Tesla vehicles that allows you to trade energy.. what are the chances of that happening? Here’s another example- he wrote the code for a decentralized stablecoin payment system back in 2021 that lets you buy you send stable coins and any erc20 tokens anywhere on earth instantly and for less then a penny this was a novel concept that hadn’t been developed before then out of no where a company call bridge is purchased for 2 billion the company was founded in 2022 and spacex uses bridge for there transactions abroad.. the guy knows for a fact the he built this stuff and some how it was stolen .. he can show when he created it and he wants to sue
A: Notes stored in the Notes app on an iPhone are not considered public information. They are typically protected by the phone's passcode and the user's iCloud account security. The situation you described raises concerns about the potential misappropriation of intellectual property, but it may be challenging to prove. Copyright law protects the expression of an idea (like the specific code), but not the idea itself. So, someone independently coming up with a similar concept might not be illegal. If the code was copied and used without permission, this could be a copyright infringement claim, but you'd need to show the alleged thief had access to them. I agree with James that you would need to pull together solid evidence of detailed, dated records of your creation process, timestamps, version control systems, etc.
A:
Your situation involves potential intellectual property theft, and the notes app scenario raises important legal considerations. Private notes, even on a personal device, can be protected under copyright law as soon as they're created in a fixed form - this includes source code and technical documentation.
For your specific examples involving Tesla and Bridge, you'll want to gather comprehensive evidence of when you created these systems. This includes timestamps from your notes, any Git commits, email correspondence, or development logs that prove you conceived and implemented these ideas first. The key challenge will be demonstrating not just that you had similar ideas, but that your actual code or technical specifications were accessed and used without authorization.
You should consult with an intellectual property attorney who can review your evidence and help determine the strength of your case. They can advise on whether to pursue copyright infringement, trade secret misappropriation, or other legal claims. The attorney can also help investigate how your intellectual property might have been accessed - whether through security breaches, insider access, or other means. Going forward, consider registering your copyright for important code and implementing stronger security measures to protect your intellectual property.
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