[ale] OT: Manufacturing an idea....

[Transam]

On Wed, May 14, 2003 at 07:59:59AM -0400, John Wells wrote:
> As I know at least one of you (Bergeron) is going through this right
> now...

> Say you have an idea for particular invention/product, but this product
> would require numerous electrical components and assembly, or even
> possibly custom component manufacture...where do you start tracking down
> suppliers/manufacturers?  What are the steps involved in taking your
> product from paper to prototype?

Chris Bergeron's advice is excellent.

Secrecy is paramount here.  Keep your idea very secret and require NDAs
before discussing with anyone and still be very careful who you share it
with.  A lot of companies that claim to help inventors are scams designed
either to extract money from you for doing nothing or to steal your idea
and patent it themselves.  Under the law there are three types of
protection available to inventors and artists:

  1. Patent protection
  2. Copyright protection
  3. Trade secrets

For inventors, usually patent protection is the only suitable form.  It
is expensive and time-consuming and usually requires lots of money to
a Patent attorney.  Use only an attorney who specializes in patents.
If you don't have $5,000-$20,000 to throw at him, don't plan on getting
a patent.  Once you have a patent, nobody else is allow to make the same
thing, EVEN IF THEY THOUGHT UP THE IDEA INDEPENDENTLY.  The idea must be
unique, non-obvious, and not a fact of science.  You cannot patent
the speed of light but you can patent the use of certain radio frequences
for television.  (The latter is why television frequencies are so high,
btw.)  It is very hard for an individual to obtain a patent.  I've only
met one person who succeeded and he was very bright and very crazy, IMHO.


Copyright protection applies only to the printed word and the creative
arts (paintings and possibly sculptures, music, and video).  Once
copyrighted, nobody else can make copies of the exact thing.  I.e.,
they cannot photocopy your book or sheet music or make or sell videotapes
of your movie.

Copyright protection does NOT protect you from someone creating their own
work of art independently.  While notarizing descriptions of one's idea
might provide some evidence that you thought of it first, this would be
useful only for the arts, i.e., your book, etc. that you are protecting
via copyright law.  It would not protect you against someone seeing a
copy of your description, building the device, and getting a patent that
then PREVENTS YOU from selling it.  Again, the copyright would prevent
them only from publishing copies of your drawings and descriptions word
for word and line for line.


A Trade Secret is just that.  You gotta keep it secret and require NDAs
of anyone subsequently allowed to be privy to it.  If anyone breaches
that security, you lose protection.

> Thanks,

> John

Bob Toxen
bob at verysecurelinux.com               [Please use for email to me]
http://www.verysecurelinux.com        [Network&Linux/Unix security consulting]
http://www.realworldlinuxsecurity.com [My book:"Real World Linux Security 2/e"]
Quality Linux & UNIX security and SysAdmin & software consulting since 1990.

"Microsoft: Unsafe at any clock speed!"
   -- Bob Toxen 10/03/2002
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