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Early Steps To Protect Your Idea

Although intellectual property ownership can be established at anytime during the commercialization process, the earlier you address it, the better. The following steps will help ensure that your intellectual property is sufficiently documented and protected from the beginning of the development process.

Create a logbook to record your work

The United States patent system is one that is based on the first to invent rather than on the first to file for a patent. What this means to an inventor is that he or she must keep thorough and complete dated records to prove ownership in a court of law. Logbooks are essential when you plan to patent a technology, but they are good practice whenever you are developing a new concept.

Your logbook should be as detailed as possible:

• Keep records in a bound laboratory book
• Sign daily entries and have a co-worker sign as witness/observer the date you conceived your idea;
• Include details that led to your idea’s formation;
• Provide an explanation of how you will develop a prototype;
• Track results of any testing and evaluation you perform; and
• List a chronology of the process from idea to product.

Typically the notebook is the property of the university, government laboratory or company just as the ownership of the technology itself. It is important that your logbook be treated as a legal document. The following steps will help.

• Keep all entries sequentially, starting at the top of the first page and continuing to the bottom of the last page, leaving no empty spaces.
• Legibly sign and date each page before continuing onto the next page.
• Never erase or tear out pages in your logbook; simply cross out erroneous entries with a single line.
• Permanently attach all supporting material to your logbook in its chronological order.
• Include references and important notes for all secondary sources in the text of your logbook.

The Book Factory (2005) and the Oklahoma State University Patent and Trademark Depository Library provide further information.

Institute non-disclosure agreements

In order to safeguard your intellectual property when sharing it with others (including those who verify your logbook entries), you must draft a non-disclosure agreement, sometimes referred to as a confidentiality agreement. Simply put, it bars individuals who sign it from divulging information regarding your invention to anyone else, and prohibits them from producing it themselves.

The importance of a non-disclosure agreement cannot be underestimated. If you discuss your idea without the protection of a non-disclosure agreement, questions about ownership may come into play. Without the signed agreement in place, people with whom you discuss your invention are able to discuss it with others, use it for their own purposes, or claim co-invention (joint ownership) if they offer suggestions on improving or modifying your invention.

If you are a university-based researcher/developer, check with your university’s Technology Transfer Office (TTO) for approved agreements for you to use. If you are an independent inventor, contact a patent attorney and have a non-disclosure agreement drafted specifically for your invention. The United Inventors Association and Association of University Technology Managers Web sites provide sample non-disclosure agreements for your review.

Companies that hire a researcher as a consultant will require him or her to sign a non-disclosure agreement as one of the first points of doing business together. It does not indicate an initial mistrust, and should always be expected. For more information about non-disclosure agreements, see the Partnerships section.

Conduct a prior art search

In order for the intellectual property regarding your idea to be protected, you must establish that your idea is new, novel, and non-obvious. This novelty is established through prior art searching, which means that you must search patent, trademark, and copyright databases and other documents to ensure that your product or idea is not already in the marketplace. Guidelines for conducting searches can be found at the United States Patent and Trademark Office and the United States Copyright Office.

Keep in mind that not all products are registered as protected, so it is wise to conduct a broad search. Explore the Web, catalogs, and stores that offer similar products. Contact retailers, professionals, and prospective users to learn how the need your device addresses is being met through products currently in the market. If you are contacting parties outside the scope of your project, your conversations with individuals or companies should focus on the function or need your product addresses and not specific design information regarding your invention.

It is best for an inventor to spend the time and effort at this stage to learn that his or her product currently exists in the marketplace, rather than expending resources on prototype development and IP protection for something that already exists.