Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Georgia

Re: Product Submission Agreement

The language of the product submission Agreement is Unilateral and Illusory (legal terms meaning: one-sided and not-real). This clause is illusory because, although the product submission Company appears to be making a one-sided promise to compensate you whether or not the invention is patentable, in actuality, the conditional language of this agreement requires you to �relinquish any and all rights� but doesn�t actually impose ANY OBLIGATION on the Company.

Specifically, the Company is not actually required to pay you for your patentable submission, and should they decide to compensate you, the amount, time and place of payment is wholly arbitrary and unrelated to the reasonable value of the patent rights. The illusory terms within the Agreement include: ��IF the Company considers the submission to be OF SUFFICIENT USEFULNESS TO MERIT COMPENSATION, compensation, IF ANY, will be made to the submitter in SUCH AMOUNT & AT SUCH TIME & PLACE as the company, in ITS SOLE DISCRETION, deems appropriate and, in the case of non-patentable submissions, compensation, if any, shall be limited solely to a single payment of a NOMINAL AMOUNT.�

I would strongly caution against signing this Agreement because the terms of the Agreement completely eviscerate any interests that you may rightfully posses in the intellectual property rights of your patentable invention.

Please feel free to contact our office to discuss any patent submission Agreements and options for negotiating compensation for the rights to your patentable invention.

THE COMMENTS CONTAINED HEREIN ARE FOR GENERAL INFORMATIONAL USE ONLY NOT AS LEGAL OPINION. NO ATTORNEY/CLIENT RELATIONSHIP HAS BEEN ESTABLISHED.

Re: Product Submission Agreement

It depends upon your intentions. If this is a huge corporation to whom you are attempting to submit a patent pending invention, and what you really want are royalties or a big huge assignment check.... get an attorney to get you the best deal possible. I would not sign this agreement (if I had a choice) because it is clearly skewed in favor of the corporation. It depends on your situation and what you want, and only an attorney who knows all of your facts can help to advise and negotiate on your behalf. It is worth it to hire an attorney in this situation. Please do so.

Re: Product Submission Agreement

I personally would not sign an agreement like this. It seems clear that under this agreement you relinquish any and all claims which you may have in connection with the Submission, regardless of its patentability. Whether this clause is effective in stripping you of your right to enforce your patent is another question- but that appears to be their intention.