This seems like it might be well worth getting an hour with a lawyer and maybe having him draft a letter to the company. I’d suggest you have them get you the patent (free of charge) and tell them you’ll sue THEM if the ex-employee does anything with the plans and let them figure it out. This isn’t your fault, it’s theirs. Keep in mind, once you entrusted them with that paperwork, it’s not like there was anything you could do to stop a rogue employee.
Having them finish up the patent paperwork, I’d think, will help make sure the ex-employee can’t do anything with your idea even if he wanted to…provided he doesn’t sell it to some huge company that could out lawyer you in court.
I have been debating myself about this one, I have long history of not following through on things like this. This particualr idea just happens to come a lot closer to my criteria for following through. I use toilet paper as the bar for criteria.
I agree with the lawer suggestions for you. This was your fucking idea, god dammit!! Document with your lawer what you have done so far developing this product, to at least kind of time-stamp your progress. Good luck, I hope you make lots of money with your idea!!!
( also, it was mentioned to go through the actual US patent office. Why not give that a try, to establish that your idea existed before the Thief attempts to do so? )
Did you find things that said it’s not a problem? Or did you not find things at all? I would guess that not too many studies would be done on this since dogs typically don’t ingest large quantities of those substances. One problem could be that the ingredients might solidify in their digestive systems. I know bone meal can have that effect. Too much bone meal will make their poop chalky.
If nothing’s been filed with the patent office yet, you can file a utility patent. It doesn’t cost much and will give you protection as being the first filer.
I actually found several things on it. Dogs instinctively will bury food in dirt. Some experts even felt it was beneficial. I saw a few things that seemed minor and speculative about possible negative effects.
I think I will file for a utility patent, hope he doesn’t get their first.
You might want to look into variations for other animals. We have guinea pigs and their claws need to be trimmed often. Perhaps something like this could help keep their claws at the right size.
Actually I hadn’t thought about it for a while but when I was more actively working on the project I was surprised to see so much demand for small animal nail maintenance products.
These “patent helper” companies aren’t out to steal your ideas. They don’t give a shit about the ideas. They make their money charging the “inventor” for services, like filling out paperwork with the USPTO. 99% of patents never make their owner a dime, even if the idea is a good one. There’s a big difference between coming up with a good idea for a cool product, and forming a business plan to make money selling or licensing the product.
There should have been a non-disclosure agreement signed before any information about your information was shared with the company. If you failed to do that … well, why not just describe your invention on the internet and let everyone know about it…
The company seems like a good company, they had all the disclusure and privacy aggreements in order before submission. They no longer have my submission.
I seriously doubt this guy is going to go around trying to sell inventions he ripped off from customers at his former job. If he’s worked there for more than a week he knows the inventions are generally worth nothing, the only way to make money is by taking it from the inventors.
If you’re worried that he’s going to start a line of competing dog nail grooming products, well, consider that this is a project that you really care about, and after several years you still don’t have a business selling these things, you’re still figuring out the best design.
As for selling the idea to a big pet supply company, if he ripped the idea off from you, why would a big company pay him anything? He won’t have a patent on the idea, you don’t (yet) have a patent on the idea. Since the product is not patented anyone could make this product and not pay anything to anyone for the idea. If the company tries to patent your idea, the existence of your prior art would invalidate the patent. That would mean, even if you don’t have a patent on the product nobody would be able to patent the invention.
And remember, all a patent does is give you the right to sue someone who infringes your patent. For low margin products like pet toys there’s often no particular reason to patent the products, since the real skill is trying to figure out how to manufacture this stuff and get it into stores and sell it and make some kind of a profit. The idea for the product isn’t that valuable since most products cannot be manufactured and sold at a profit, only a tiny fraction of all inventions can.
Actually, that only applies if the prior art is either publicly available (in a place the examiner is likely find it), or if it was filed at the patent office prior to the competitor’s filing. From the sounds of it, the company never filed any paperwork, so I wouldn’t count on this being available anywhere.
