***This question needs to be answered by Monday, Sept. 1, 9:00 am. If
it is after that time, do not bother answering the question.***

I recently came up with a new idea for an invention. After talking to
2 people about it, they agreed to help me build and market the idea.
All I came up with was the idea; they are going to patent it, build a
prototype, and market it. This is fine with me since I don't have the
technological knowledge to do this. When preliminarily discussing what
percentage of the final profit I would get, they cited examples of
inventors only getting between 1-3% and said I shouldn't expect more.

I want to present them with precedents of inventors who did get more
than 5% just for an idea. Therefore, I would like to know 3 real-life
examples of inventors who only had an idea and nothing else and were
given greater than 5+% of the final profits for their idea, by a
company or person who was going to do all the rest of the building,
investment, and marketing.

(The higher the percentages in the examples, the better. All I need in
the examples is some background info on the company and inventor, what
the invention was, and how much they got.)

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Request for Question Clarification by byrd-ga on 29 Aug 2003 15:36 PDT

Hi Sportzen,

I haven't as yet been able to locate any specific examples of revenue
sharing agreements between inventors and others involved in bringing
an invention to market.  What I have found, however, are examples of
specific policies and agreements between inventors and certain
institutions, such as major universities, which assign royalty rights
in amounts upwards of 25% to the inventory of a product or process,
even though the institution in question may pay all expenses and fees
in question, as well as hold ownership of the patent.  Would such
examples suffice to answer your question?

Also, it might be helpful if you could let the Researchers know
something about the type of invention you're talking about.  Is it a
product, for example, or a process, software, etc.?

Thanks for the clarification,

Byrd

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Request for Question Clarification by omnivorous-ga on 30 Aug 2003 03:03 PDT

Sportzen --

I'm aware of a popular software product for which the original
designer was paid 5% of REVENUES, though the agreement dates to the
1980s and can't be referenced on the Internet.  Eventually the company
designed around his original technique but the royalty arrangement
held for at least 5 years.

It is important to note that using revenues instead of profits as the
royalty basis exposes the licensor (you) to much less manipulation. 
For example, in Hollywood film distribution companies for years have
loaded distribution and overhead costs onto films -- making even the
most-successful appear unprofitable:
Houghton-Mifflin
"Business Readings"
http://college.hmco.com/accounting/resources/students/readings/12-bengei.html

Google search strategy:
"studio overhead" + "profit sharing"

Best regards,

Omnivorous-GA

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Clarification of Question by sportzen-ga on 30 Aug 2003 16:07 PDT

Hi Byrd,

The examples you found will only suffice if the inventor did not
significantly develop the invention past the ideas stage. For example,
if the inventors in your examples built a prototype and wrote the
patent and then went to an institution to get royalties on an idea,
then these examples will not help me.

I really only have an idea, and it regards a process as well as a
product. Therefore, I can only benefit from examples of people who
came up with ideas and then received 5+% of the final revenues/profits
from a company or people who did all the rest of the work on that
idea.

I hope that clarifies my question and thanks for all your help.