Can anyone please tell me the number for the inventors ad on channel 4, thanks for your help.

Why not just make one up? LOL:P

Is that the one with the 'phone us for help with your invention' message?

If so, best bet is to start with a trip to the Business Library in the City Library. They have some leaflets from the Patent Office about using 'Invention Promoters' and the information is useful.

Generally, you should be careful in your dealings with these Invention Promoters in general as they often have a lot in their contracts that can trip you up.

The Chartered Institute of Patent Agents do a free information pack - check out www.cipa.org.uk.

Other good sites are :

www.innovation.gov.uk - this is a DTi site.
www.invent.org.uk - non-profit Institute of Patentees and Inventors - they give guidance and advice on the process of inventing stuff.

But start with a trip in to th Business Library and nab a copy of the leaflet 'Step-by-Step Guide To Using Invention Promoters'.

Happy innovating!

Joe

i would recomend you patent your idea, or at least get some form of copyright on it.
imagin ringing in your ideas, and being fobbed off, only to find 6-12 month down the line your idea is in production and someonelse is taking all the credit for it. :mad:

just be carefull is all im saying, and good luck with your ideas.

You can only copyright things that are realised in some way - written, recorded, built - rendered material. You can't copyright an idea, but you can patent a process or item that is original, even if you've not yet built it (I think). For example, as soon as I type this in to here and publish it in the forum, my brilliant thoughts are copyrighted automatically by rendering them in to words on the screen and stored on a disc somewhere. But the process and technique behind, say, Dolby Noise Reduction is patented and should you want to build and sell a Dolby NR circuit you have to pay a license (I think....I am not a lawyer....)

However, patenting is quite expensive - that's where those links above can help out. The first stage in patenting anything is to do a search for 'prior art and knowledge' which basically determines whether anyone's patented similar things before.

Whatever you do when dealing with folks, don't disclose anything to anyone without a Non Disclosure Agreement / Confidentiality Agreement. If you do, then you can later lose all rights. Tough world!

Joe