intellectual-property, copyright, patent, non-disclosure-agreementThis might be a stupid question. Is there a way to send someone, who wouldn’t know you, a packet of information (thru email) for them to review to see if they’re interested in the pitch?
My problem is I know NDA’s (Non-disclosure Agreements) usually have to be signed and exchanged to retain intellectual property rights (IP).
However, if I’m just sending NDA’s for people to sign, printing and signing and scanning and emailing back is never fun, especially when they don’t even know what I’m pitching yet. Is there any way to send someone the info without just giving away my rights for them to steal the idea?
Sadly, no, the law does not recognize “please don’t tell” as a viable form of IP protection.
Given that, your best option is, as I suspect you know, to get a patent. If you’re tight on cash, you could just go for a provisional application (which is generally pretty cheap to get). That will only last a year, but it gives you a filing date so if you then decide over that year that there is interest in your invention, you can get a non-provisional (what most people think of when they think of a patent).
Aside from that, and this is really just a guess, I know there are several types of electronic signatures that are actually accepted by branches of the government. For example, the patent office accepts “/full name/” as an acceptable form of signature. Again, this is just a shot in the dark, but it’s conceivable that some jurisdictions might accept a similar form on an NDA. It’s possible that another reader will know, or you could consult an attorney in your area. I bring this up, of course, in response to your complaints about having to scan signatures. I know that can be a hassle, so this could at least get you around that particular woe.
But long story short, no, you’ll need some form of concrete protection or else it will certainly qualify as a public disclosure, and (dependent on jurisdiction) you could lose rights to your intellectual property.
People are too concerned about ideas. Ideas are a dime a dozen. Professional investors never talk to someone who is worried about this issue, because it is a display of amateurism.
Paul Graham’s has a must-read article about the value of ideas:
Actually, startup ideas are not million dollar ideas, and here’s an experiment you can try to prove it: just try to sell one. Nothing evolves faster than markets. The fact that there’s no market for startup ideas suggests there’s no demand. Which means, in the narrow sense of the word, that startup ideas are worthless.
Many established companies create a two-part pitch:
Don’t forget that having a Non-Disclosure Agreement doesn’t protect you by itself. It only provides documentation that the party involved agreed not to disclose such information (nor take advantage of it in any ways prohibited by your NDA). You may have to sue or use whatever resolution process you include in your NDA.
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