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Inventors: Don’t Rely on a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) to Protect Your Idea from Getting Stolen

If you’re an inventor or product developer with a great idea that you want to profit from, the idea of someone else stealing your idea can be sickening. It’s bad enough to think of someone else pocketing the money you expected to make on your invention, but can imagine also being denied the legal right to make and sell the very thing you invented, while someone else gets rich from it? It can – and does – happen. Very, very easily. One way it happens is when an inventor relies on a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) to protect their idea from getting stolen when sharing it with another party. For example, you might have an idea for a mobile app, and you decide to outsource the software coding to an independent contractor. You have the coder sign an NDA, because you believe it will prevent the coder from stealing your idea. Unfortunately, a

Miami Patent Attorney’s Latest Inventor Book Tops Amazon Best Seller List

If you are an American inventor or entrepreneur with a new idea, you cannot help but relate to the long, exhilarating, and yet sometimes painful journey of creating something new. Follow along and discover the secrets behind doggedly pursuing your dreams and the courage to risk escaping the gray in your life. John Rizvi, Esq., a leading Miami Patent Attorney explores his personal 20 year journey through patent law that encompassed both dark, heartbreaking moments and uplifting triumphs as he sought to help inventors protect and profit from their ideas. By turns funny and serious, whimsical and straightforward, vulnerable and honest, John Rizvi details his journey from resigning as a patent attorney for one of the most prestigious and revered patent law firms in the world – a firm that counted Bell, Edison, t

A Famous Lesson In Filing Patents First: Alexander Graham Bell Vs. Elisha Gray

One of my favorite stories pivots around the invention of the telephone, a photo-finish between Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray to win the patent first. Most of you will probably NOT recognize Gray’s name but then history seldom remembers a runner-up! It could all have been so different if he’d followed one of my cardinal rules to protecting an idea in the United States. Watch my video to find out!

The “Lost” Michael Jackson Patent

"You’ve Been Hit By, You’ve Been Hit By…A Smooth Criminal" From Smooth Criminal by Michael Jackson  Did you know Michael Jackson holds a patent for a device used in the live entertainment version of Smooth Criminal? Here’s the story… In the 1980’s, Michael Jackson revolutionized pop-entertainment. Other than the moonwalk, one of his most memorable gambits was the "anti-gravity" lean from the Smooth Criminal video. During concerts, Michael Jackson wanted to recreate this lean in front of a live audience. If you haven’t seen the stunt, click below on the youtube video to check it out.  Patently Absurd The problem is, it’s impossible to lean that far without falling over. In the Smooth Criminal video, Michael used pulleys and cables to create the illusion of defying gravity. B