16
Jan

How does the Intellectual Property (IP) remain mine?

Posted by Carrie Jeske in Uncategorized.

Question?

How does the Intellectual Property remain mine from the time I submitted to the time that it is made public and needs IP protection?

Short Answer?

Use non-disclosure agreements (NDA’s), term sheets and modification/improvements clauses in contracts. Pick your partners wisely.

On My Soapbox…

We count the product owner to be the inventor. Since we don’t require patents, we just use the product name, which is generally descriptive. Also, our company has a good track record. We work to be “inventor friendly”. I’ve headed up inventor groups that grew to 1,500 and post videos and free educational material to put people at ease because we want good ideas. Here’s a playlist of good I.P. insights.

I’ve launched my own products successfully, but it’s hard work and not as profitable as people perceive because of the high cost of doing business. When I joined forces with the people at WIL, it was because of their integrity and ability. I knew we needed to be transparent to gain inventors trust and that’s my role.

Our appetite for products is so great and the upside so high, that we need inventors thinking and creating product concepts. Most products fail. Consumers simply won’t buy them in large enough scale to be worth the effort. When we develop out a winner, it’s actually more fun to share the wealth, as a team; enjoying the journey together.

That said, I’m constantly educating inventors on royalty rate verses financial risk on the company side to develop an item out, and the importance of being nice and reasonable. Inventors often over estimate the value of their initial concept and some can be “difficult to work with” because of that over estimation, greed, pride or misguided skill arrogance. We’ve realized our time is the most valuable resource we have since it’s cannot be recouped no matter how much money we make. Time is a limited resource. Being able to choose whom we work with is a pleasant benefit.

The Truth Is!

I enjoy long term relationships of trust. The hard truth…. If any company wants to design around a product, they can. When inventors post products on crowd funding sites or DIY networks, they actually end up exposing market problems and solutions that companies take notice of, then invent better, totally unique, product solutions on their own.

Bottom line…. It comes down to contract clauses and language that protect you from invention modifications, but more then that, it comes down to people and trust. Court battles rarely end in the inventors favor. Choose your partners wisely and if a big bad company comes knocking…. Have someone like WIL on your side, take their deal and say “thank you”; or prepare to compete with them in the open market.

As for me, I give information for free and make money only when products sell. In return, I hope for “First Look” and 120 days to develop out a product before pray & spraying it to every Tom, Dick and Harry.

See you on the shelves,