Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

In response to your question, GrillCharmer, I filed a utility patent and it is pending.  I am confident that it will be approved, but remain unsure until I have it in my hands.  I am fearful that one of these big pharmaceutical companies will try to circumvent the patent and steal it from me.  I am prepared to present my invention and NDA but no one wants to conduct business in this manner.  They want me to answer questions on their website.  What do you suggest?

This MIGHT (and I do mean MIGHT as I don’t know your situation in detail enough to give an actual recommendation) but there are certainly times when the risk of someone stealing your idea is worth the reward of a licensing agreement.  Some times it makes more sense to take that chance and go for it.  There is always a chance someone is going to try to steal your idea.  (That’s what patent protection insurance is for) but that is a chance all of us inventor’s take.  Usually companies don’t steal ideas until they are proven successful.  I don’t know your industry so take this post with a grain of salt.  I am just playing devil’s advocate and giving you a little something to think about.  What is your comfort level?  Will you feel much better about this when you have your patent in hand?  If the answer is yes, then it might be worth the year or so it takes for the peace of mind, but if the product is time sensitive, which a lot of products are due to advancing technologies, then it might just be a race to market, so there is no time to be scared, put it out there even if “patent pending” is all you’ve got!  Best of luck, keep us posted!

With large companies, a better approach is in having an agent "sell" them on the idea. As others point out, large corps aren`t single minded, but they do run on budgets, you want to get on one of those for R&D.

So, the agent needs the facts of your patent to bargain with, like statistical studies and other why-it`s-good facts to put on the table.

Forget the website and the concept of selling to the bigs that way, get an agent with a track record in your area instead, sell to the front door. Agents work the phones, they find interested parties that fit the bill, it`s SOP to get the NDA up front.

hth,