The assignment has three basic parts explaining your invention; identifying the intellectual property interests involved; and drafting a basic contract to get your invention manufactured.

In order to successfully complete this project, you must understand the different types of intellectual property discussed on pages 171-188 of Chapter 8 in your e-text, as well as the elements of a binding contract discussed in Chapter 9 of your e-text and this weeks discussion.

When you approach the assignment, you might create the following sections:

Invention: Give a very simple explanation of the invention, e.g., I have invented a parents helper. It is a robot that moves from room to room in the house and takes pictures that are automatically sent to the parents phone. This enables parents to keep an eye on what their children are doing without physically intruding on the childrens space. Parents are able to set the route of the robot and the frequency with which it completes each circuit of the route. (I have not researched whether this is actually a novel product, for the sake of this example, I am assuming it is.)

Intellectual Property Protection Needed: The best type of intellectual property protection will be a patent because, as noted on pages 160-161 of the e-text, my invention is a machine that is novel, useful and nonobvious. Although the use of irobots is commonplace today, using a robot in the manner I described is as non-obvious as the example of the forkchops on page 161 of the e-text.

Additionally, if I can come up with a distinctive name, symbol, word, logo, or design to specifically identify my product with my company and thereby distinguish it from similar products down the road (Cheeseman, 2012, p.167), I may also want to look into a trade mark, discussed on pages 167-175 of the e-text. But since I am focused on my invention right now, the primary intellectual property right protection with which I am concerned is the patent, specifically a utility patent.

Proposed Draft Contract:

In this section, suggest the agreement by which you will provide access to your design and by which the manufacturer will manufacture your invention exclusively on your behalf. Obviously, you want to maintain your intellectual property rights, so the manufacturer will only have the right to use your design, but will not have any ownership interests in your design. Further, the manufacturer will only use your design to build robots (to use my example, but you will use whatever your invention is) for you and according to your specifications in the contract.

You will also want to consider if the manufacturer will be required to supply all that you need (a requirements contract) or if you will establish a set number of robots to be manufactured and you will be required to purchase all of them.

Additional issues of concern will be: when must manufacture of the robots be completed; what payment amount is due and when; where delivery of the finished products is to be made; who bears the risk of loss prior to delivery; and any other pertinent details that matter to your agreement.

Further, for your protection, the contract should include a statement that the written contract is the whole agreement and any oral or written agreements outside of this agreement are expressly excluded from the final agreement. (This negates the need to worry about parol evidence.)

Although this may seem like a lot, truthfully, it doesnt have to be that complicated. Often, the shorter the contract, the better because the parties are more likely to read and understand it