Mary, you must be real naïve about the business environment
You claim that, Ripoffs are far from inevitable and in fact rarely happen from big companies when dealing with established inventions and inventors. And when it does happen, the companies often end up losing in court-- losing big. See for example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Kearns Well, I went to the Kearns webpage and it took him 12 YEARS to get a judgment in the first case, which was appealed, but Ford lost, so even though he finally won, and got paid a good amount, IT WAS VERY EXPENSIVE AND TOOK OVER A DECADE TO GET ANYTHING. This is very typical the big companies will drain you of every penny here are the 2 paragraphs from that website about the lawsuits ================= RE: Robert Kearns ================ He sued Ford Motor Company in 1978 and Chrysler Corporation in 1982 for patent infringement. The Ford case went to trial in 1990. Ford lost, though the court held that Ford's infringement was not willful (meaning that damages for infringement would not be enhanced). Ford agreed to settle with Kearns for US$ 10.1 million with an agreement of no further appeals. After the settlement with Ford, Kearns mostly acted as his own attorney in the subsequent suit against Chrysler, even questioning witnesses on the stand. The Chrysler verdict was decided in 1992, and was a victory for Kearns. Chrysler was ordered to pay Kearns US$ 18.7 million with interest.[7] Chrysler appealed the court decision, but the Federal Circuit let the judgment stand.[8] The Supreme Court declined to hear the case.[9] By 1995, after spending over US$ 10 million in legal fees,[10] Kearns received approximately US$ 30 million in compensation for Chrysler's patent infringement.[7] ====================== Im not a real networking kind of guy, so my network of scientific/techy people is not all that large. Despite that, I know one inventor that started to get royalties from a small chemical company for an inexpensive way to manufacture isoflavones. The royalty checks stopped after just three months because the small chemical company was bought by ADM, and ADM refused to honor the royalty contract. My inventor friend eventually won his case, but it was very time consuming and expensive. I also know a guy who has spent $7M on a lawsuit against Chevron up at Lake Tahoe, and he still is barely hanging on by his fingertips. And all the evidence clearly shows that the Chevron station in Incline Vlg (long since closed) has leaking gasoline storage tanks and caused serious underground pollution youd think it would be a clear-cut case, but they can drag it out for YEARS and make you spend millions and bury you in paperwork and court filings. And finally, my own personal experiences on the Boards of several small startups has been a real eye-opener as to what the legal environment is like should disputes arise. Avoid any litigation if at all possible Im afraid most of your business suggestions (more like assertions) show a clear lack of real-world experience -Mark
