8 COMPARISONS
COMPARE.
WHAT THIS IS
These pages compare two ways of protecting what you make: AI review against a lawyer, an NDA against trade secret status, registration against a timestamp. Each one gives the facts, the costs, and the honest case for both sides, so you can pick without a sales pitch.
- 01AI CONTRACT REVIEW VS A LAWYERUse AI review to find out what a contract actually says and what it costs you, in minutes, for a few euro. Use a lawyer to negotiate it, to advise on your specific facts, and to act if it goes wrong. Most people need the first before they can afford the second.
- 02AN NDA VS TRADE SECRET STATUSAn NDA is a contract binding one named person not to disclose. Trade secret status is a legal quality the information itself holds, but only while you take reasonable steps to keep it secret. NDAs are one of those steps, so they are not alternatives, they are layers of the same protection.
- 03COPYRIGHT REGISTRATION VS A TIMESTAMPED RECORDCopyright exists automatically the moment a work is fixed, in every Berne country, with no registration required. Registration is optional and mainly matters in the United States, where it unlocks statutory damages. A timestamped record proves when you had the work, which is the question that actually gets disputed.
- 04WORK FOR HIRE VS AN IP ASSIGNMENTWork for hire is a US doctrine that makes the commissioner the author from the outset, but only for employees or nine listed categories of commissioned work. An assignment is a written transfer of copyright after it exists, and it works in every jurisdiction. Outside the US, assignment is the only reliable route.
- 05EXCLUSIVE VS NON EXCLUSIVEA non exclusive licence lets you license the same work to as many people as you like. An exclusive licence means nobody else may use it in that scope, and usually not even you. Exclusivity should cost several times more, and should always be bounded by use, territory and time.
- 06A SIGNED SPLIT SHEET VS A VERBAL HANDSHAKEA handshake split is a real agreement and it is almost impossible to prove. A split sheet is a one page record signed on the day, naming every contributor, their share and their publisher. Without it, collection societies default to equal shares or freeze the money entirely while the dispute runs.
- 07TRADEMARK VS COPYRIGHTCopyright protects creative expression automatically, so it covers the artwork of a logo but never the name itself. Trademark protects a sign used in trade for particular goods or services, and requires registration to be worth much. A brand normally needs copyright in the artwork and a registered trademark in the name.
- 08LICENSING TO AI VS OPTING OUTOpting out is free, is your right under EU law, and depends on crawlers respecting a signal they are not audited on. Licensing is paid, but requires you to prove you own the work and to state your terms in machine readable form. The two are compatible: reserve the right, then sell it.