Pitching Without Property: The Idea Submission Doctrine and Contractual Protection of Creative Ideas in the Global Creative Economy

Creative ideas in media and entertainment industries are frequently disclosed during the pitching stage before they are fixed in a form eligible for copyright protection. This structural feature of creative production creates a recurring legal vulnerability: copyright protects expression rather than ideas, while trade secret protection requires secrecy that is often incompatible with commercial pitching practices. This article examines how United States courts have addressed this gap through the idea submission doctrine, a contract-based mechanism that recognises liability when ideas are disclosed under circumstances giving rise to a reasonable expectation of compensation. The study adopts a doctrinal and comparative analysis of leading US cases, including Desny v Wilder, Grosso v Miramax, Montz v Pilgrim Films, and Forest Park Pictures v Universal, in order to identify the core contractual elements required to establish liability and to clarify the relationship between idea submission claims and copyright pre-emption. The article further distinguishes the doctrine from trade secret protection and situates it within contract law rather than intellectual property law. By placing the US experience within a broader comparative perspective, the study highlights the implications of pitching disputes for jurisdictions where similar creative exchanges occur but doctrinal guidance remains limited. It argues that contractual governance, rather than the expansion of proprietary rights in ideas, offers a principled mechanism for regulating creative exchanges at the pre-production stage in an increasingly global creative economy.