Recording a phone conversation about patentable things

Question

On one hand, I want to conversate about useful fresh future ideas with people that have the power to patent those pleasant premises.

On the other hand, given the messed-up weirdness of IP law, I want some legal footing regarding the so-called intellectual property of what I talk about in those conversations.

How can I have early-stage conversations about probably patentable programming and practices without passing all the power of my premises to people who can purloin the possibilities with patents?

Answer 1

How can I have early-stage conversations about probably patentable programming and practices without passing all the power of my premises to people who can purloin the possibilities with patents?

It sounds like you're worried about a patent agent or attorney stealing your idea. This is a serious breach of ethics and simply does not happen very often at all. Even if it happens rarely, it's only one of many possible failure modes. You're much more likely to fail by failing to profitably license your invention than to fail by having your idea stolen by a patent agent or attorney.

So try to avoid PGL (paranoia, greed, and lazyness), a common ailment of novice inventors. http://www.seacoastonline.com/article/20130513/BIZ/305130330

That being said, do take reasonable precautions. Don't just randomly e-mail your idea to hundreds of patent attorneys in order to ask for quotes.