New York, NY asked in Contracts, Intellectual Property and Patents (Intellectual Property) for New York

Q: I like to private label my product. It can not be patented & the company is not willing to sign NDA. What to do? Thanks.

My product contains 5 products that already exist on the market. I just put the 5 in one small pouch and with that, I created a new purpose and function and made an entirely new product.

2 Lawyer Answers
Kevin E. Flynn
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  • Pittsboro, NC
  • New York
  • New York
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A: It would be a long shot but you may want to consider whether the five previously known items combined together for what you call a "new purpose and function" could be protected with either a method claim or a kit claim.

You may want to look at my slide set on searching and see if you can find anything patented for the particular purpose and function that your set addresses. http://bit.ly/Patent_Searching

I hope this helps.

Kevin E Flynn

A: If there is no privileged, confidential, trade secret or other proprietary information that you or your company owns and protects as such, I am unsure what purpose is served by requiring the other company to sign a NDA. If you have a good relationship with this other company you may want to reconsider the value and true purpose for the NDA.

Peter D. Mlynek agrees with this answer

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