Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Massachusetts

This can be tricky, because you want the other party to consider your idea, but not be scared away by an advance, pre-submission agreement preventing them from taking/using your idea without compensating you. On the other hand, without an advance agreement memorializing that the idea is yours and presented to them as a business proposal for their review, "ideas" are not generally protectable. As a result, they are often taken or used without the owner's permission. Absent an adequate (but simple) business arrangement in advance, there is usually little the "owner" can do about it.

Sophisticated companies know a pre-disclosure agreement is commonplace in this area and should be open to negotiating simple terms to define the arrangement and protect you. If they don't want to do this, that could be a sign the have bad intentions, and probably you wouldn't want to do business with such entities anyway.

In short, a sufficient pre-disclosure agreement can be put together and (usually) negotiated in advance of submitting the idea without a lot of legal expense. I strongly recommend doing so; Usually the cost is well worth it to protect you (otherwise unprotectable) idea.

Good luck. Call if you would like to discuss.