AngularJS controller inheritance

When multiple controllers need access to the same data, a service should be used. You should not rely on scope inheritance, as it restricts how you can write your HTML. E.g., in the future, you made decide that DerivedController should not be a child of BaseController.

Your service should typically provide a public API, and hide the implementation. This makes it easier to refactor the internals.

HTML:

<div ng-controller="BaseController">
    <p>Base Controller Value: {{model.getValue()}}</p>
    <button ng-click="model.updateValue('Value updated from Base')">Update In Base</button>
    <div ng-controller="DerivedController">
        <p>Derived Controller Value: {{model.getValue()}}</p>
        <button ng-click="model.updateValue('Value updated from Derived')">Update In Derived</button>
    </div>
</div>

JavaScript:

app.factory('sharedModel', function () {
    // private stuff
    var model = {
        value: "initial Value"
    };
    // public API
    return {
        getValue:    function() { 
           return model.value; 
        },
        updateValue: function(value) {
           model.value = value;
        }
    };
});

function BaseController($scope, sharedModel) {
    $scope.model = sharedModel;
}

function DerivedController($scope, sharedModel) {
    $scope.model = sharedModel;
}

Fiddle.

Also, I do not recommend using $rootScope for sharing between controllers.