Legal Question in Business Law in California

Re: protecting intellectual property

You will need each person and entity to which you disclose the idea to, to sign a non-disclosure / non-competition agreement before you disclose the idea.

Re: protecting intellectual property

A patent is the preferred route, or at least a patent application. Short of that, you can obtain individual (preferably written) agreements with each party to whom you disclose your idea.

Many businesses have established procedures and preprinted forms for dealing with inventors who bring them unsolicited ideas, and they often take the attitude that this is a nuisance they'd rather not have to deal with.

Your question suggests that you may be contacting a fairly large number of persons and firms. This complicates the protection process and can make proof of the source of a leak very difficult.

California courts have offered only very limited protection to plaintiffs whose unpatented or uncopyrighted creative ideas were misappropriated without a written agreement. Don't rely on this.