FORTUNE Small Business:
Question:
How does one with limited funds go about moving an idea into the mainstream without risking it being stolen by a large entity with staff counsel and other lawyers capable of litigating the matter ad infinitum? - Paul in Harrisburg,Pa.
Answer:
According to Stephen Gass, president of SawStop LLC and inventor of its flagship product, the safety-equipped SawStop cabinet saw, you have 2 options: keep it secret or patent it.
‘There is no great and cheap way to protect ideas,’ says Gass, who has had more than 25 patents issued for the SawStop since 1999. Gass is also a patent attorney, although he no longer practices.
The first and cheapest option is to keep your idea confidential while you develop it for the marketplace. This means you can share your idea only with people who have signed a non-disclosure agreement (NDA)
But there are major disadvantages and risks to this strategy.
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