> If I ever come up with a million-dollar idea, the first person I'll tell it to is a patent lawyer.
This is good advice for a startup, but terrible advice for inventors. What you should do is to learn how to write and file a provisional patent in the USA, to get one year of patent pending status. And then try to licence out the technology to a company, who will often pay for the complete utility patent for you, or with an advance.
satbirkira t1_ja5s7ib wrote
Reply to comment by NewCanadianMTurker in TIL of David Sarnoff, the head of RCA and NBC who suppressed and then stole FM radio and Television from their inventors, driving one to suicide and the other to alcoholism. by Dega704
> If I ever come up with a million-dollar idea, the first person I'll tell it to is a patent lawyer.
This is good advice for a startup, but terrible advice for inventors. What you should do is to learn how to write and file a provisional patent in the USA, to get one year of patent pending status. And then try to licence out the technology to a company, who will often pay for the complete utility patent for you, or with an advance.