Craftsman: Edison Idea?

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Have any of you dealt with the Craftsman Edison Idea Program? For those that have not heard of it, its where people who have good ideas on how to make better tools, or invent new tools, go,fill out a form and send it in. Craftsman claims if they like your idea they will help you get a patent and pay you for the idea...up to 5000 bucks.

This sounds cool. I have had an idea for quite awhile now regarding a simple solution to making a fairly common tool a lot better, so this Edison Idea Program sounds like it might work for me.

This all sounds good so I start reading the form and the fine print online. If I am reading this right, it seems like you are kicking your idea entirely over to them, in the hopes that they may find it interesting and maybe pay you for it. The wording is kind of confusing, but after reading it, I did not get that warm fuzzy feeling. You seldom do reading fine print however. I cannot imagine they would go through the trouble to create an entire program, and then just expect people to give up any and all rights to their idea before its even considered as viable.

I am not sure my idea is really worth chasing a patent for, yet I don't really like kicking what I feel is a good idea and tool, over to a corporation and signing away all right to it before its merit is even considered. I don't know,this all sounds fishy to me.

If anyone enjoys reading fine print and legal notices, here are the links. Its number 2 on the list called "terms of agreement". Let me know what you think about this and if you were in the same position I am in.

http://www.craftsman.com/ideas/
 
i`m not going to bother reading it travis.....but rest assured "big business" has your best interests at heart:rolleyes:.....you can bet that if you`re given 5k for an idea it`s worth 5m or more and by signing the cleverly worded contract you`ll have given away any and all rights to future profits made from your idea..
if you think you`ve gotta winner then file for a patent and start lookin` for investors to foot the bill for production......before you go too far take a few mins to read about how the stanley works treated leonard bailey back in the early part of the 1900`s and understand that todays lawyers and the companys that retain them have learned from past victorys as well as defeats.
 
Most big companies require you sign a release. The $5,000.00 is generous compared to what others (don't) offer. Gun companies won't even talk to people with ideas. That is because they have so many 'ideas' under study that if some guy comes along with something they are already working on then produce later, he is sure to sue claiming they stole it. I have tried to sell an idea for a medical device and a new type of lock. Releases had to be signed before they would even accept the suggestion to look at. I refused.
 
Kmart is "the savings place". My 2 cents on this one is rather simple.The big corporations became big because others had good ideas that could be monopolized on. If you have a "good idea" it costs about $200 to file a provisional patent and then you have a year to perfect it. During that time you do enjoy the protections of the US Patent Office. However, I have witnessed the "outright theft" of a good ideas and years of legal wrangling because of it. Think twice and protect the "secret sauce".
 
Thanks for your input thus far. I just kicked this over to my Attorney via email. He is not well versed in patent rights and all that, but he is a good general attorney. He might be able to tell me if this is just typical business protection, or a little too restrictive. He might be able to help me protect my idea in other ways too.:dunno: You would be surprised what one letter will do for you when you have an attorney's letterhead on the letter :rofl::rofl::rofl:
 
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