A nondisclosure agreement and other basic agreements protect you before you start marketing your invention. These basic agreements protect you against unauthorized use such as copying by designers, engineers, manufacturers, distributors, and retailers.
The NDA and other basic agreements protect you by forcing them to keep your invention secret as you ramp up to your product launch date. After all, you need to tell engineers your idea so that they can design it. You need to tell manufacturers how to make your product before the product launch. You basically need to tell these people about your idea before you even publicly market it. These agreements will help you to maintain the secrecy of the invention and also ownership of the invention before the product launch.
The patent application helps to protect you idea after your product launch date.
How to protect your invention immediately after you get your idea
As soon as you conceive your invention, you don’t need to file any documents to protect it. All you need to do is keep it as your trade secret. It should stay that way until you file your patent application. While you are ramping up for your product launch, you need to keep it secret. You keep it secret by making everyone sign at least a nondisclosure agreement and other basic agreements, as discussed below.
Trade secret law protects secret valuable information. Upon conception, your invention is secret because only you know about it. It is presumably valuable too because – at least in theory – your invention solves a problem.
An NDA protects your invention when attracting investors
To protect your invention from investors, you should have them sign a nondisclosure agreement. This agreement prohibits them from telling others about your invention. They can’t use the information you give them for any other purpose than evaluating whether they are going to invest in your invention.
An Independent contractor agreement protects your invention when hiring engineers, designers, and manufacturers
When you hire engineers, designers, and manufacturers, a basic NDA will not work for you. These individuals will be solving problems for you and those solutions could be inventions that you want to get protected. As such, the agreements that they should sign should do more than just prevent them from telling others about your invention.
Agreements for these people should include other aspects such as an invention assignment clause and a copyright assignment clause. This agreement is referred to as an Independent Contractor Agreement. With this type of agreement, when they invent for you, you can incorporate their work into your patent application, if and when you do file one.
When you initially approach an engineer, design,er or manufacturer, they will not want to sign the independent contractor agreement because of the assignment clauses. In such cases, you can use the NDA agreement above. One of the terms of the contract should include execution of the Independent Contractor Agreement.
An NNN Agreement protects your invention when manufacturing your product in China
In China, you should get manufacturers and others to sign an NNN agreement. Nondisclosure, noncompete, and non-circumvention clauses are inserted into that agreement. The NNN Agreement is as common in China as a NDA is in the United States.
How to protect your invention when marketing
You are now ready to market your product. But before you do, you need to protect your invention from your competitors. You obviously don’t want them to steal your idea after all the hard work you put into it.
You should file a patent application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. If you get the patent and a competitor copies your product, you can sue them for patent infringement.
This article is part of a series called Essential Patent Strategies. Here is a list of all of the articles:
- Start Here: Essential Patent Strategies
- What is a patent search and How to do it?
- How to conduct a DIY patent search
- How much does a patent search cost? (Patent Search Service)
- How to protect Inventions Involving Third Parties? (Nondisclosure Agreements and other basic agreements)
- Delaying patent costs to have more money for marketing with a provisional application
- How much does a patent cost?
- How to Get a Patent as Fast as Possible
- What is the average patent cost?
- How much does a quality patent cost?
- Patent Cost Framework and cash flow
- How much does a design patent cost?
- Is a design patent right for you? (Should you get a design patent or a utility patent for your invention?)
- How to Create a Strong Patent?
- How to build a patent portfolio?