Games

It's true far too many innovators overestimate the value or marketability of their inventions. But, it's also true that valuable intellectual property can be and has been appropriated.

Considering that the individual inventor is not in the stronger bargaining position with a well financed company, what measures besides a NDA can the indidualu inventor, particularly an unproved one, take so that neither the company (buyer, producer) nor the inventor are exploited in the process?

Drawing an analogy to the film industry, there has been more than one high profile "respected" producer and/or studio which have been found by a court to have misappropriated a script/story.

It's not always just sleazy ones which have taken advantage of the intellectual property creators.

Respectfully,

Charles.

Date: Fri, 17 Jun 2005 17:05:16 -0400
Message-ID: <redirect-10733304[_at_]cni.org>
From: John Levine <johnl[_at_]iecc.com>
Subject: Re: [CNI-(C)] Games
In-Reply-To: <list-10724910[_at_]cni.org>

>Your position concerning not signing a NDA is sound but what would
>you suggest a new inventor do to protect themselves besides filing
>for a provisional patent when they're approaching manufacturers to
>produce a prototype or companies to license it?

Nothing, beyond doing a little research before approaching companies to avoid egregiously sleazy ones.

Most people grossly overestimate the value of their own intellectual property. The problem an inventor should be thinking about is how to persuade people that his invention is worth buying, not how to keep people from stealing it.

R's,
John Received on Mon Jun 20 2005 - 20:05:01 GMT