Intellectual Property

Stephen Key

  • file provisional patent ~ $70
  • patents don’t protect you that well
  • you can license with a provisional patent
  • patent attorneys won’t work that hard for you as you would.
  • keep it pantent pending for the life of the product (since most of the products go in and out so fast now)
  • use NDAs
  • you can keep re-licensing after a year
  • learn how to make license agreements (it’s like a chess game)
  • if there’s a similar idea patented, you can license it from them.
  • your marketing material should sell better than yourself
  • most communication goes through LinkedIn
  • you need to promote it before building the prototype.
  • one minute prototype video is better than sending the prototype (check TV infomercials)
  • TV infomercials companies don’t care about patents (telebrands, all-stars)
  • pitch at least to 20 companies. don’t get the big dogs, get the medium dogs that want to become big
  • show a lot of confidence
  • you can’t file again the provisional patent if you made it public
  • make a Sell Sheet
  • google about a company before showing them your product to see if they have many complaints

manufacturers

USPTO

Ownership

  • the one who builds the software is the one who owns it… not the one who pays for it. Unless there is an agreement.

  • [ ] does AG/SiteFuel agreement includes the above?

  • what if npm modules have proprietary license?

Books

  • The Obstacle Is the Way
  • One Simple Idea by Stephen Key

websites

Reference

Stephen Key

John King

OC ACM Chapter

Inventor’s Forum