How To Protect Your Invention When Pitching It
If you’ve developed a potentially marketable invention, you are faced with a dilemma. To make money from the invention, you must generally license the rights to it to another business, often a manufacturer or distributor. But in pitching the invention to potential licensees, you run the risk of disclosing so much information that the invention might be stolen or no longer protected by law.Horror stories abound of unscrupulous businesses who feign disinterest in the hard work of an inventor, only to turn around and use the inventor’s description of her work to steal the invention for themselves–and reap huge profits. Some inventors have fought back in court and won millions–money that rightfully should have been theirs in the first place. One study determined that trade secret owners prevailed in 75% of the cases–poor odds for parties planning to steal. But winning these cases isn’t easy or cheap.
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