States (Inventor) Rights
More states are passing legislation that protects inventors. Among them are California, Connecticut, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin. Unfortunately, most inventors who get ripped off by the paracreative, parasitic sluggards who operate under the guise of invention marketing services do not even realize that their state has protective legislation.
Here are some highlights from the laws of Minnesota and Virginia, respectively. I encourage you to write to any of the aforementioned states for a complete copy of their legislation.
Notable Quotables
Business has only two basic functions—marketing and innovation.
—Peter Drucker
Minnesota (Invention Services 325A.02):
1. Notwithstanding any contractual provision to the contrary, inventors have the unconditional right to cancel a contract for invention development services for any reason at any time before midnight of the third business day following the date the inventor gets a fully executed copy.
2. A contract for invention development services shall be set in no less than 10-point type.
3. An invention developer who is not a lawyer may not give you legal advice with respect to patents, copyrights, or trademarks.
4. The invention marketer must tell you …
a. the total number of customers who have contracted with him up to the last thirty days; and
b. the number of customers who have received, by virtue of the invention marketer’s performance, an amount of money in excess of the amount of money paid by such customers to the invention marketer pursuant to a contract for invention development services.
Fast Facts
George Washington signed the first patent bill on April 10, 1790, and for the first time in history, the intrinsic right of an inventor to profit from his invention was recognized by law.
5. The contract shall state the expected date of completion of invention marketing services.
6. Every invention marketer rendering invention development services must maintain a bond issued by a surety admitted to do business in the state, and equal to either 10 percent of the marketer’s gross income from the invention development business during the preceding fiscal year, or $25,000, whichever is larger.
Virginia, Chapter 18, 59.1-209:
1. No invention developer may acquire any interest, partial or whole, in the title to the inventor’s invention or patent rights, unless the invention developer contracts to manufacture the invention and acquires such interest for this purpose at or about the time the contract for manufacture is executed.
2. The developer must tell you if they intend to spend more for their services than the cash fee you will have to pay.
3. The Attorney General has the mandate to enforce the provisions of this chapter and recover civil penalties.
Bright Ideas
The first Apple computer was born in Steve Jobs’s parents’ garage in 1976. He and college bud Steve Wozniak assembled computers for fellow students. Their first commercial order was for 50 computers. To raise the $1,300 needed to buy parts, Jobs sold his VW bus and Wozniak his Hewlett-Packard calculator. In 1977, Apple sales soared to $800,000, and within five years it became a Fortune 500 company.
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