Ex-Employee Sues James Cameron Alleging Theft of Avatar Script

When submitting an idea to a producer, it is always a good idea to get a non-disclosure agreement and an acknowledgement that the person understands that the idea is yours.  Too many times, inventors or authors simply submit their ideas blindly to producers in the hopes of selling or licensing the idea to an entity with the resources to see it through to market.  Because of this, many companies will not open and will return any mail that appears to have an idea submission without some sort of agreement between the parties about the use or ownership of it.

The situation changes slightly when the person submitting the idea is an employee of the producer and that person's job description includes creation of such ideas.  Employees who invent something or create an idea as part of their employment generally do not own their rights to that invention or idea (this is somewhat of an oversimplification) because employers will have what is called a "shop right" in the invention or idea.  A "shop right" is essentially a license created by law from the employee to the employer.

Given the foregoing, it is interesting that a former employee of a production company is suing James Cameron and his former employer, Lightstorm, for "stealing" his story about an "environmentally-themed 3-D epic about a corporation's colonization and plundering of a distant moon's lush and wondrous natural setting."  Hmmmm, sure sounds like the plot for Avatar.

Now, before jumping to conclusions, it is conceivable that James Cameron or one of his "people" came up with the idea independently of the Lightstorm's employee, and therefore, there would be no copyright infringement.  This one may be a fun one to keep an eye on.