Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Graham Mink]

Hi all,

Like a lot of other people on this Board I have a great money making idea with little money or time to do much about it. After reading through some of the posts I think I have picked up on what steps I should take to protect my IP.

1) Find an engineer, get him to sign a NDA, then pay him to draw up the specs/explanation of my product/idea.

2) Find a reputable IP attorney (like that Ivey guy who hangs here a lot) and fill out a patent application and CYB (cover your butt) as much as possible.

3) Approach Big Brother (whoever the major player(s) is/are in the industry) and either get ripped off/ignored (99%) or get paid(1%).

Does this pretty much sum it up? If so, then I have a couple of questions that I was hoping someone could answer:

A) How much money does it cost to get to the stage to approaching Big Bro? i.e. What does the Engineer charge? What do the Bigwig Attorneys(like Ivey) charge? What share does Uncle Sam get for the Patent App?

B) The feeling I get from reading another post is that even though you go through all this time and expense to protect your IP, once you go to Big Bro he will probably ignore you and steal it, regardless of the patent, since he knows you don't have the deep pockets to win in court. So why go through all the time and expense in the first place? Why don't you just risk it from the start, go to Big Bro, and hope he likes you and plays fair? If he is gonna rip you off he would do it with or without a patent so why waste the time and money getting one?

Anyway, I dont want to sound pessistic, frankly I am quite the opposite, but this whole system seems set up to screw the little guy. I want to pursue my idea, and I believe I can make money from it and it can help make peoples lives easier, and I want to do it the right way. So if someone could please tell me what the right way is I would appreciate it! Any advice/suggestions/answers/comments/questions/sarcasm/and or gibberish would be awesome! Thanks.

Peace
~THA noob

[Wiscagent]

I have a comment on one minor point in Graham's note.  He wrote "... once you go to Big Bro he will probably ignore you and steal it, ..."

Ignore you - Yes.  Steal it - No.  

There can be several reasons why Big Bro will have no interest in your great invention:
- the invention is no aligned with existing business plans.  Even if you have a great idea, don't expect Big Bro to scrap their plans for it.
- the risk, reward, and investment involved in your idea are not as favorable as other plans they are considering.
- not invested here.  No matter how good your idea is, it is not yet proven.  And your idea has no constituency within the Big Bro organization.

Unless you are a fabulous salesmen, it is unlikely that Big Bro will even seriously consider your idea, let alone follow up on the idea and implement (i.e. steal) it.

Richard Tanzer