Advice on getting an invention to market...

regency_man

Hi,

I have an idea for a product which I think could be highly successful. I don't think it is patent-able as it is quite a simple idea using a couple of existing and open standard technologies. However being 'first to market' with this would be highly important.

I have found a couple of product design agencies who seem ideal to turn my basic designs into something real, but I'm completely unsure on how to 'safely' engage with them.

Can anyone give me some advice as to what legal arrangements I should make with the agency before revealing my idea so that they
1) Don't simply take the idea and make it themselves.
2) Don't release details of the idea before I can get it to market.

Thanks!!

InsideInsurance

The norm is a None Disclosure Agreement and None Competitive Agreement which can be rolled into one document - ie for an agreed period they wont tell anyone or compete with you directly.

In reality, they are hardly worth the paper they are written on for discussing an "idea" as (1) its easy for them to say they already had heard that idea before you and (2) enforcing IP rights is notoriously difficult and thus expensive and so if you are not a large corporation they probably wont believe you could afford the lawyers.

On the plus side though, an agency (design, estate, product etc), is in the business they are in and rarely want to get into other business spaces. So if they specialise in bringing products to market they arent going to be interested in running a business that sells that business. Plus, if they get a reputation of stealing their clients ideas then they arent going to be in the business of being an agency for long.

When I ran a web development company we would always sign NDAs for people who asked before they discussed their unique website idea but never once was any of them something we wanted to quit being a development company for to become webmaster or ecommerce store owners.

paddyrg

Beware, some of those companies just want to sell you services and will promise you the earth as long as you keep on paying.

Is there already a company in a similar sector who will licence the product/idea from you, then develop it in-house and take it to market through their existing sales channels? It's the cheapest option and bears little more risk than doing it yourself!

Mistral001

I think this is a case of where your business intuition has to come in. you have to make a decision on whether you can trust one of these firms. If the answer is no, then do not go there. Face-to-face meetings with them would be a must I should have thought before even considering taking one of them on board.

Non disclosure agreements are fine on paper, but really only as good as how much money you enforce them.