blonde poker forum

Hi

I have a bit of a dilemma. I have some excellent ideas for an online skill based gaming site that I wish to market, but the gaming development companies I have approached refuse to sign a non disclosure agreement.

Do I trust them and show them anyway? or do I continue to insist on having an NDA in place to protect my ideas prior to showing anyone?

Any advice would be gratefully received.

 ;carlocitrone;

INSIST on the NDA. Or go elsewhere.

i agree

if the companies you've approached are anything like the fruit machine / skill game industry that I work in, they'll be expert in changing it just enough that it's no longer close enough to your idea that they need to credit you anyway.

If the idea is that good, perhaps you should be working in the industry. this idea could be part of your pitch.

At the moment you have only an idea. Without an NDA you wont even have that.

Thanks TK but I'm rapidly running out of suitable companies to approach.

Most don't even reply to emails/letters and those that do tend to say the same thing. in that they are currently exploring a number of different game ideas. Given our activity in this sector, we cannot sign an NDA that may cover an idea that we arealready developing.

They say this even though one of the clauses in my NDA is  :-
these obligations shall not apply:

(i)   to information and data which was in our possession prior to receiving it from you (as evidenced by our written records), or

(ii)   to information and data which we are able to prove was published before its receipt by us, or

(iii)   to information and data which we are able to prove we received on a non confidential basis from a third party independently of you.

Thats one of the big downfalls.
Once the game/site is produced how can you protect it from being ripped off?

you cant

the answer about the NDA seems reasonable. the companies will have all sorts of ideas in development. something similar to yours may well be one of them.

what kind of companies have you approached? have you tried the fruit / quiz machine companies? most of them (us) are working on things like online / mobile phone games. If you want to run the idea past someone in the industry in confidence I'll have a look at it if you like. strictly between me and you obviously.

Have you thought of making it yourself?

I have thought of going it alone but i don't have the finances available to make a good job of it.

Get it patented then take it to market or contact Dragons Den.

Unfortunately you cannot patent it, I am however protected by copyright to some extent though.

Not knowing the product make this more difficult to advise but is it worth approaching online sites directly rather than developes, that way you could judge possible interest from the market.

I know the owners of 2 sites if that helps.

Excellent, I'm sure that would be a great help. Please can you PM me their details.

I'm off home for the weekend now so I probably wont be able to respond to any further advice/questions until Monday.

Thanks to everyone's input so far I do appreciate it.