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Unread 22-09-2015, 15:08
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Nathan Streeter Nathan Streeter is offline
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FRC #1519 (Mechanical MAYHEM)
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Join Date: Feb 2008
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Re: FRC Blog - FIRST Future Innovator Award

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tanis View Post
It is of course not perfect, but they are encouraging applicants to think about this, and provide some information on how to learn more about protecting their ideas.
I read the more in-depth page before my previous post... I was less frustrated after reading it, but I'd certainly think long and hard before submitting an idea that I thought had real potential for success... What does submitting the idea get you? A shot at winning $5000, which really wouldn't get you very far... what might actually be helpful is the notoriety/networking brought on by winning, but this also comes with the cost of exposing the idea to Dean/DEKA/Dean's Lawyers and to everyone in FIRST.

What also makes it a little tough, is that the award is submitted on October 30, and awarded at the end of April. That means that the first 6 months of a potential provisional patent will have already gone by before the award is even given... and that's assuming that the inventor even made a provisional patent, and that it was an effective provisional patent, and that they'll be able to follow it up with a real patent that could best a potential patent from Dean (or whoever else catches wind of it that has talent, capital, and lawyers).

Anyway, I suppose I'm making a big deal out of nothing... I suspect very few ideas will be submitted and that legitimately viable submissions would be exceedingly rare. My advice though: if you think you have a viable idea and the interest/energy to run with it, either don't submit the idea or put a lot of care into your provisional patent.
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Student: 2006-2010 (#1519)
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