1) A confidential disclosure agreement (CDA) is a written agreement between you and another person (vendor, engineer, bartender, etc.) stating that whatever information, documents, etc. you discuss with them is confidential and they can’t share it with others. By signing this document the second party in the conversation (vendor, engineer, banker, etc.) can now be sued for damages associated with him “spilling-the-bean” to someone else or using the information without your written consent.
These CDA’s will become more important as congress completes its work on the Patent Reform Act of 2009 (the group lobbying for this is known as “The Coalition for Patent Fairness.” The “Coalition” includes Microsoft, Apple, Google and other ‘small players’ trying to get their voices heard). If passed, the new Patent Law would change from “first-to-invent” to “first-to-file.” This means that if you discuss an idea with, say a plastics molder, to see what the potential tooling cost would be for you new idea, and the molder takes your idea and files for a patent as soon as you leave… It’s his patent!
We could spend the next 3 months discussing the damages and/or merits of the Patent Reform Act of 2009, but I see it as a waste of time. If Microsoft, Apple and Google are paying big money to get this passed… It’ll pass. The real conversation is what can we do to protect ourselves regardless the changes in the law. One thing is to have everyone, including your brother-in-law, sign a CDA.
A “boilerplate” CDA can be obtained by an attorney.
Note from Jeff Gawronski: Paul Tuttobene is also an inventor that took an idea (Buck Magnet) and made it a reality. He shares all the highs and lows in a must read book titled ‘INVENT-ONOMICS’ If you have an idea for a product invention before you go any further you have to read this book.
