The times to use the secrecy agreement and meeting form together are when you are seeking capital investment or seeking to sell or license your concept. You should use the two forms together because the secrecy agreement only requires that the individual or company keep the information confidential and not try to do anything with the concept. This works well with individuals who either have no real ability to take your concept and run with it, or whose best interests will be served by doing business with you and not trying to steal your concept.
Unfortunately, many of the companies to which you will want to disclose your ideas may have a great interest in ripping you off, if you don't know how to protect yourself. These companies are not necessarily bad, just opportunistic. If they see the chance to take your idea without compensating you, they will. They will rationalize it as "free enterprise" or some other nonsense.
It was for this reason that I developed the Product Meeting Disclosure Form. The meeting form is like a steel box in which you trap the company into admitting that you're the inventor of the product concept and that they have no rights to do anything with it without you being compensated. The meeting form is also the fairest document possible for both sides, because, if the company proves to the inventor that they already have the concept in house, in any stage of development, then they are free of constraints of both the secrecy agreement and the meeting form. Most companies see and agree with the fairness and logic of the system after they review the form.
Here is how to use the meeting form in combination with the secrecy agreement:
1. At the time the initial secrecy agreement is signed, the top section of the meeting form is also filled in. Every person who signs the secrecy agreement must also sign on one of the top lines in the meeting form. This is to acknowledge that they were present at the meeting. The top third of the page (down to the insertion point of the inventor's name) should be filled out prior to turning over the idea information for review.
2. All people present at the meeting should be told that no one is allowed to leave the room (with one exception to be discussed shortly) until after the material is reviewed and the meeting form is completed. This is done because the meeting form requires proof from the company that the idea is already under development for the inventor to release the company from its obligations of secrecy and compensation. Any person leaving the room for any amount of time after the concept is revealed might be capable of fabricating a document as evidence of the company's prior development of the concept. If, after the idea is revealed, the company president or other highest-ranking member states that they have no such idea or concept under development, the meeting form should be fully completed with the signatures of those present on the appropriate lines at the center of the document. You can then allow people to leave the room and the discussions can continue for any length of time with you in the driver's seat.
3. If, after the concept has been revealed, the president or any other member of the company states that this is an idea already under development, then you must request to see the evidence of this fact. They must know about this possible request ahead of time and agree that the evidence will be presented immediately upon your request. If it is in another part of the building or any location where it is said to take a while to bring to the office, then you should request to be able to go to that location and see it there. It is for this reason that all concept disclosures must be made at the company's location and especially where they do their research and development. If an inventor tries to do this at a hotel location or at any other location where the company has the chance to delay the viewing of the corroborating information, the company can fabricate enough details based upon the disclosure to them to get out of the agreement and steal your ideas.
4. If the concept is proven to be already under development, then you are obligated to sign the bottom portion of the agreement and give up any rights you have to the product that may come from that company. This does not mean that you cannot try to sell your concept to another company. As long as you do not disclose the proprietary information learned from the first company, and as long as no other agreement constrains your actions, you are still free to try to market the concept. You also still have the option to try to produce and sell the concept on your own, in competition with any and all firms.
Proper use of the secrecy agreement in conjunction with the meeting form can get you a contract with a company for the sale of the concept, even without further development or patents. Having proof of registration with the Patent Disclosure Document program prior to the meeting is the best way to totally lock up the concept when using these forms.
One firm that was not presently capable of buying a concept outright at the time of the initial discussions put me on retainer to hold the idea while they evaluated the concept's practicality in their product line. This was to keep me from marketing the idea to their competitors. After more than a year of payments for ΓÇ£holding onto the idea,ΓÇ¥ the company was unable to purchase it because of other business problems that took their cash flow. I still retained the product rights, however, and later sold the concept to one of their competitors. This demonstrates the ability of the secrecy agreement and meeting form to generate income in various ways while protecting your ideas from being easily ripped off.