So, here's the challenge, how do you protect your idea, while trying to promote it or interest partners in investing in it. An idea comes from observation and inovation, but sometimes you need a lot more technical expetise and marketing ablitity than you have available. An idea in itself is not protectable ie. trademark patent etc, but you need it to start anything. So, how do you find interested parties, who won't poo-poo your idea and as soon as you close the door they are on the phone to get your idea going and leave you on the sidewalk looking and telling any one who will listen that "that was my idea". Thanks

If you carefully write down your business ideas in a letter and address it to yourself, you should be able to prove that the idea was yours first. Once you receive the letter in the mail, don't open it.

Google "non disclosure agreement template".
Download a copy, modify it for your needs, done!
It's a standard letter that requires others to keep your ideas quiet.

A copy of one is
http://my.execpc.com/~mhallign/form1.html

or

http://ezinearticles.com/?Mutual-Non-Disclosure-Agreement-Template&id=350378

Exactly what the other person said. Research NDA, non-disclosure agreements.

V/R,
Donnie
VeteranWebDesign.com

The only other bit of advice I could add... Get the idea going. The longer you wait, the better chance someone else is going to come up with the idea and beat you to it.

T

Tina Brooks, VP Marketing
Brooks Pepperfire Foods, Inc.
Makers of Peppermaster Hot Sauces
http://www.peppermaster.com

Eat more peppers!

Questions:
1. how do you protect your idea, while trying to promote it or interest partners in investing in it sometimes you need a lot more technical expetise/marketing ablitity as an idea is not protectable ie. trademark patent etc.
2. How do you find interested parties, who won't poo-poo your idea and as soon as you close the door they are on the phone to get your idea going and leave you on the sidewalk looking and telling any one who will listen that "that was my idea".
===============================================================
IDEA CAFE RESPONDENTS HAVE ANSWERED:

(A) If you carefully write down your business ideas in a letter and address it to yourself, you should be able to prove that the idea was yours first. Once you receive the letter in the mail, don't open it.
(B) Google "non disclosure agreement template". Download a copy, modify it for your needs, done! It's a standard letter that requires others to keep your ideas quiet.
---------------
My response to both Q's:

Response to (A):
-Otherwise referred to as a "Poor Man's Patent." It would not be valid IMO in the field of Intellectual Property for one obvious reason --but there are more -- one did not insert anything in the envelope originally leaving it unsealed then mailed it to oneself. Upon its return one inserts something into it then one an intruder appears, seals it in an attempt to establish an earlier date (old postmark) for that which one had just inserted. Welcome to tricksville USA.
- Additionally, the U.S. being an ?Inspection and Review? country means since it was never inspected and reviewed by an official at the patent office before it went in that envelope it has little worth (if the new patent reform bill is enacted this year -Senate Bill 1145, the US will move from a "First to Invent? to a "First to File" country so as to be in harmonization with the rest of the world). Translated, First to File at the U.S. patent office (assuming content statutorily eligible) gets the patent no matter what claims they've been working on developing the invention for years.

Response to (B): ?Non Disclosure/Non Compete (NDA) Agreements? are contracts therefore governed by each state?s law on contracts therefore there is no ?standard? contract since each state has its own laws as to what will/will not be enforced in them. Clauses should be written based on state law as to what will be enforced with an eye to what will not be enforced by state courts. California is a tough state and indeed, such contracts have to be carefully written as savvy vendors will not sign them unless non competition and other clauses are removed.

My response in how to acquire a modicum of protection if only a filing date for anything that might be patentable:

Currently (doubtful it will change) the patent office has a cheap way to "Reduce (ideas) to Practice" for $100 (called ?Constructive Reduction to Practice?). The US does not require one has a proto, formal drawings, flowcharts/schematics etc before writing/filing an application for patent though, obviously, if filing a formal patent one had better know how to make and use it. In the meantime, with only an idea but some knowledge of how to make and use so that it minimally could support its future formal patent application, one could write/file a ?Provisional Application for Patent.?("PAP") After it's filed at the patent office transferred to the invention is the status of "patent pending" -- if only for one year. Within that year one aggressively develops the idea into an invention and hopefully generates sales and/or secures a Licensee(s) thereby acquiring money to file a formal ?Non Provisional Patent Application? {"NPPA"). In fact, sometimes Licensees pay for the formal or split it or subtract costs from royalties and sometimes not. Some Licensees want patents and others will tolerate PAPs as long as it more likely than not they stand a good chance to issue as strong patents. NPPAs take around three years to issue then acquire conveyable Rights.

To your question #2: ?how do you find interested parties, who won't poo-poo your idea and as soon as you close the door they are on the phone to get your idea going and leave you on the sidewalk looking and telling any one who will listen that "that was my idea".

My response: Likely your idea may be poo-pooped, so what? If you fail to adequately protect your idea the onus is on you for allowing it to be copied or redesigned. Welcome to a free market economy. Moreover, unless you have invented something with no direct or indirect competition born out of science and exploration of outer planets, you have an improvement on someone else?s idea so why get paranoid about others designing around what you have? Get used to it and indeed, carefully plan for it and every design-around you can think of that another could come up with then design/include it in one's formal patent application (NPPA). Welcome to entrepreneurship and ?competition!? I suggest you treat your idea(s) as you would your first born; don?t hire a babysitter without performing due diligence before agreeing to meet with them. You request their resume, work experience and you check their references same as you would of any company. Moreover, if you ever get a patent it should be your hope to have lots of infringers. The more the merrier since a strong patent is another way to make money aside from the physical product itself.

How do you find licensees:
You contact qualified companies with tooling in the field of your idea to learn their submission policy. If they won?t sign NDAs since you have no patent you move on until you find those who will. Again, perform due diligence before hiring or entering talks.

As to a trademark:
You can apply for an ?Intent to Use? mark when you?re not readied to commercialize your business or product name. You?ll be given a certain amount of months to commercialize it and failing that, you lose the mark. Trademarks are based on use in the marketplace as one factor. Fail to use it commercially and you lose it. In fact, an affidavit has to be filed every few years providing evidence one?s mark is/has been in use. File for a Federal mark at the US patent office and if it issues it is yours in all fifty states ---as long as you continue to use it commercially. If you only intend to use a mark in your state of residence, it?s a lot cheaper and secured through the local Secretary of State not the US patent office.

Regards,

Penny Ballou
PBallou@aol.com

Penny Ballou

>As to a trademark:
>You can apply for an ?Intent to Use? mark when you?re not
>readied to commercialize your business or product name. You?ll
>be given a certain amount of months to commercialize it and
>failing that, you lose the mark. Trademarks are based on use
>in the marketplace as one factor. Fail to use it commercially
>and you lose it. In fact, an affidavit has to be filed every
>few years providing evidence one?s mark is/has been in use.
>File for a Federal mark at the US patent office and if it
>issues it is yours in all fifty states ---as long as you
>continue to use it commercially. If you only intend to use a
>mark in your state of residence, it?s a lot cheaper and
>secured through the local Secretary of State not the US patent
>office.

Great information Penny, but I am going to add (I've told my story here before) the FACTS as they relate to Trademark protections... Intent to use or otherwise.

I created the Pepperfire Trademark. I am the only person in the world to have EVER brought the Pepperfire name to market YET this is the current status of MY trademark: http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/app/cipo/trademarks/search/tmSearch.do?language=eng Search "pepperfire"

It has so far cost me $30K to have a judge rule that I own the trademark. BUT, in order for the Trademarks office to rightly state that I do, I have to appeal to them, read spend more legal fees, to have them expunge the original trademark application.

My advice to anyone considering using Trademark protection to protect themselves: Don't waste your time unless you are willing to fight to the death to keep it.

Oh and in case you're thinking it's different because trademark law in Canada isn't the same as US law... it's exactly the same, just a different appeals board.

Tina Brooks, VP Marketing
Brooks Pepperfire Foods, Inc.
Makers of Peppermaster Hot Sauces
http://www.peppermaster.com

Eat more peppers!

Like "they" say: it's all in a name --sometimes.

Regards,
Penny Ballou

Penny Ballou