Posts Tagged ‘agreement’
With the ever-changing economy, today’s businesses are looking to make sure the choices that they make are the best ones possible for the long term. More often than ever, this means planning far into the future, making smart financial investments. But the term financial investment can be loosely interpreted.
In order to ensure that the future your business is as secure as possible, you must look at both existing assets for the company in addition to considering looking into technology based investments for the good of your business. But before jumping into this arena, consider that you must do your research first in order to sure that your choices are providing investment that is future-proofing your company. Some examples are provided below.
Long term vs. short term software investments – A short term investment is a license to run a certain number of software titles according to its licensing agreement. A wiser and longer term investment is hiring a company to come up with an open source software solution that can be crafted to meet your company’s needs to the letter. An example of this is live chat software for the company website. It will require a bigger initial investment, but will cost much less in the long run as it prevents any sort of vendor lock-in headaches. This alone can save your firm thousands of dollars down the road and will also provide you with real security knowing that your software can be updated anytime you need it to be.
Long term vs. short term hardware investments – One common misconception is that investing in lots of the latest in notebooks and smart phones is a solid long term investment. Nothing could be further from the truth, as both have a relatively short shelf life in the long term value department. While there is nothing wrong with a limited number of both items listed previously, I’d suggest putting the bulk of a company’s long term hardware investment into virtualization and server access. Both of these can help your company grow without significant hardware investment later on. Bundle this with the software investment of open source software, it’s easy to see how long term investments that will benefit your business for years to come can be put into play pretty easily.
Many people have great ideas for new products or services but can not afford to market and often seek a larger company to help them achieve it. If your idea is so unusual that it is patentable, before displaying or presenting, you should ensure that the company signs a confidentiality agreement in order to steal the idea if you can sue.
It may sound crazy actually happening to us for fear of rejection that we dare not even suggest that our interlocutor to sign something like that, but there are many people who have already taken their disappointment for not taking good estimates of the case.
I know first hand, a writer friend who willing to make themselves known to the producers of a major television channel in his country did not take care required and the idea became a soap opera that the channel was sold to the world with the behalf of another person.
To avoid this type of intellectual property theft you should look for an experienced attorney in your area to help you write a confidentiality agreement.
Try the agreement is reasonable and that you will hear not refuse to sign it. Try to submit a draft of your idea without any depth, and nothing in the world today or submit prototypes.
A good presentation can make a meeting for more details, if that’s the case, try to develop your idea with all the details and if possible ask for the registration of the same.
That of course is no guarantee that if someone wants to steal your idea can not do it, but that will allow you to have a legal case if they do.
As best you can do before thinking about a trial that consumed money that you probably do not have is trying to make if it were to present such a situation, you have a good chance of winning or at least reach a settlement with the copycats.
Other suggestions in this regard is to be selective with whom he shared his idea and seek further information and references from people you trust when selecting companies to which they will present their idea.
After all that is worth more than the best industrial property attorney.