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Old 05-23-2007, 02:20 PM
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Jroettger Jroettger is offline
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Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Minneapolis Minnesota
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Default Re: anyone have any advice about patents

Micheal, thanks for the reply. A new brother in law of mine has been a professional inventor his whole career for the medical industry. In that field people and investors are always waiting for the next new idea. He has sold items with just a joint confidentiality agreement. However he also just informed me that one of his ideas that he disclosed in 1999 is now being put through the patent process by someone he revealed it to with a joint confidentiality agreement! He said he'll wait till it's making money then go in and sue the guy. His opinion is that patents are too hard to protect to bother with.
In the case of the item I want to market virtually all the similar products on the market to date have been solely patented, manufactured and promoted by the inventors. The jewelry field is not one where people like Stuller are waiting around for the next inovation to buy, develope and market. It seems more likely I'll have to bring it to market which won't be easy, even for a great idea.
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