2022 Iowa Code 523G.4 – Initial disclosures
The following disclosure is required by section 523G.4 of the Iowa Code: The person you are dealing with is an invention developer regulated under chapter 523G of the Iowa Code. Unless an invention developer is an attorney licensed to practice in this state, the invention developer is prohibited from providing you legal advice concerning patent, copyright, or trademark law or to advise you of whether your creation, idea, or invention may be patentable or may be protected under the patent, copyright, or trademark laws of the United States or any other law. A registered patent agent may give advice as to patentability and protection available under the patent laws. A patent, copyright, or trademark protection cannot be acquired for you by the invention developer. Your potential patent rights may be adversely affected by any attempt to commercialize your idea or invention before a patent application covering it is filed. Nonconfidential disclosures of your creation, idea, or invention may also trigger a one-year statutory deadline for filing a patent application in the United States, after which you would be banned from receiving any patent protection in the United States, and would prevent you from obtaining valid patent rights in countries whose law provides that patent applications must be filed before there is a public disclosure. Your failure to identify and investigate existing patents, trademarks, or registered copyrights may place you in jeopardy of infringing the copyright, patent, or trademark rights of other persons if you proceed to make, use, or sell your creation, idea, or invention. If you assign even a partial interest in the invention to the invention developer, the invention developer may have the right to assign or license its interest in the invention, or make, use, and sell the creation, idea, or invention without your consent and may not have to share the profits with you.