Entrepreneur magazine, January 2000
During his diabetes monitoring product's research phase,
inventor Kazi Ahmed, owner of NuMedics, set up a focus group with
people who counsel or treat diabetics. But how could he be sure
they'd keep his idea under wraps? Attorneys typically tell
inventors to get a Statement of Confidentiality and Non-Use (which
Ahmed used) from people to whom they reveal their idea. I find many
people resist signing this statement, and that sets up an
atmosphere of mistrust, especially with industry people who are
just there to help you with informed product input.
Fortunately, there's another tactic for accomplishing the
same agreement to secrecy. Ask people to sign a Technical Advisor
Agreement in which they agree to provide you with occasional input
regarding your product during its development stage. As part of the
agreement, the advisor agrees to keep any proprietary information
confidential. The end result? Your secret's safe with them.
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Contact Sources
NuMedics, (503) 291-9190, kahmed@numedics.com
Don Debelak is a new-business marketing consultant and the
author of Bringing Your Product to Market (John Wiley &
Sons). Send him your invention questions at dondebelak@uswest.net