You and your friends are considering creating an electronic database that would contain all the information available to troubleshoot and repair every make and model of car from 2006 forward. The database would include do-it-yourself repair information, exploded schematics of automobile engines, wiring diagrams, recall information, and technical service bulletins, among other data. Subscribers would be able to enter the year, make, and model of a car along with a description of the problem and get all the information needed to work on that specific car. Most of the data would be scanned in from existing sources. Special software would be written to convert the user’s problem description into a description recognized by the system’s search engine, which would then generate queries to retrieve and present the most pertinent information to solve the problem. 

What intellectual property issues might you and your friends encounter in digitizing all these existing information? How might you be able to get around these issues? 

What means should you consider to protect your intellectual property?