By Mike Drummond
Over the last year or so, we’ve seen at least a half-dozen pleas to get the word out for this inventor reality TV show or that.
The pitches almost always come in the form of emails from eager TV producers claiming to represent shows for the History or Discovery channels, or some other unnamed network.
Most of these pitches come from folks with gmail or Yahoo! accounts, rather than from the networks they purport to work. (Yes, this is standard practice among independent TV producers. But at first blush, it can strike a lay person as lacking credibility.) One typical pitch from someone who said she was working on a show for the History Channel went like this:
“Are you an amateur inventor who’s come up with a big idea? Are you looking for an investor who can get your invention to the masses? A new TV series is on a nationwide search for new products from amateur inventors who are looking for their BIG BREAK! Calling all inventors – THIS IS YOUR CHANCE! Our renowned team of invention investors will come to your home & test your invention. They will then decide if they want to use their $$$$ to fund your idea and bring it to market. All types & levels of inventions will be considered, from a homemade prototype to a manufactured product.”
In follow-up emails, the woman looking for inventors said, “Who wouldn’t want to get their product on TV?”
For starters, some of the folks who appeared on the mercifully short-lived ABC series American Inventor. Being mocked on national television or YouTube is not a brand-enhancing move. For two seasons in 2006-07, the show held up inventors for ridicule and/or sentimental extortion. One is hard-pressed to forget the pull-up plastic barrier for urinating in public.
A viewer from the UK commented: “The point seems to be to show just how stupid many of the applicants are, and to publicly humiliate them. Those who are successful are shown weeping and hugging each other. It’s all enough to make me vomit.”
Indeed, some inventors may not have the stomach for the ways they could be portrayed.
The release agreement for the aforementioned History Channel project requires inventors to grant the show and any affiliated and related entities – including employees – “the perpetual, irrevocable right and license to distribute, broadcast, and otherwise exploit the footage and recordings related to the Submitted Material (“Recordings”), gratis, throughout the universe, in any and all manners, formats and media, now known or hereafter devised.”
Your product and likeness – for good or ill – could end up on a billboard or in a futuristic hologram.
The release adds: “I hereby grant … permission to and you shall have the right and sole discretion to edit, alter, modify or change any part of the Recordings for any reason in connection with your (or your assignee’s or licensee’s) use thereof.”
Meaning you could get Photoshopped into a montage featuring unique and novel inventions – perhaps even that plastic barrier for urinating in public.
On the sixth and final page of the document, in all upper case, comes this warning:
“PUBLICATION OF YOUR INVENTION, INCLUDING FEATURING YOUR INVENTION ON THE SERIES, MAY RESULT IN THE LOSS OF RIGHTS, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION THE LOSS OF PATENTABILITY OF YOUR INVENTION. YOU ARE HEREBY ADVISED TO SEEK THE ADVICE OF INDEPENDENT LEGAL COUNSEL….”
You don’t find this type of language in the casting call come-ons. But it’s worth noting. Suppose you had a great product you sought to license. Appearing on a TV show for the quick gratification of exposure could cost you your patent rights and devalue your potential royalties along the way.
Moreover, publicly showing your idea without a patent openly invites copycats.
But wait, Mr. Inventors Digest Magazine Editor, you may be saying. What about your sister business, the PBS television series Everyday Edisons? Does submitting ideas for the show constitute public disclosure? And doesn’t Everyday Edisons take ownership of the patents?
Submitting ideas to Everyday Edisons – formerly at casting calls at physical venues and now online – is done behind closed doors, not in public. Submitting ideas to Everyday Edisons has not been constituted as public disclosure. If you’re in doubt, consult your own patent attorney.
And, yes, if Everyday Edisons decides to feature your idea on the show, you will be required to assign your invention rights (including any existing patents) to the show so that your invention can be commercialized. It’s all spelled out on the website in an agreement all participating
inventors must read and complete as part of the submission process.
The show (and/or its licensees) pays patent maintenance fees and bears the risk of paying for media, telemarketing, order taking and processing, credit card and check processing, warehousing, landed costs, freight, applicable duties, taxes, insurance, packaging, shipping to customers, customer service, markdown money, fees, commissions, and other expenses to brokers, distributors, and other third parties.
To be sure, some shows in the works seem to have the best interests of inventors at heart.
Lucky Dog Films based in Silver Spring, Md., shot an inventor reality pilot in May this year for the Television Food Network. The show evidently is a go for this year.
The hosts are Steve Greenberg, a TV personality who regularly appears on the TODAY show and is author of Gadget Nation; and Patrick Raymond, former executive director of the United Inventors Association and founder of product-evaluation service InventionScore.
“I’ve been extremely impressed by the producers’ insistence on remaining inventor friendly,” Raymond says. “Bad ethics makes bad TV. The public figures it out and those shows are agonizing to watch.”
The show required inventors with food-related inventions to acknowledge they had received independent legal advice concerning the patentability of their product.
Greenberg notes that it was in his best interest to do a positive show about inventors.
If he were to do a show that cast inventors in a negative light, the “producers go off and do a skydiving show,” he says, “and I’m still in the world of inventors.”
Indeed, the person who billed herself as representing an inventor show for the History Channel has a diverse portfolio. She has shepherded casting calls for projects looking for married teens, beauty pageants, truck drivers and “mean little” girls.
Greenberg also notes that appearing on TV, even in an erstwhile friendly environment, can be risky.
TODAY hosts Kathy Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb, who chat with Greenberg about new inventions, “sometimes will say, ‘Oh my god, that’s stupid.’
“You’re not going to get exposure without some sort of price,” Greenberg adds. “That’s
the trade-off.”
Not all publicity is good publicity. Before daubing on makeup and heading to the studio, here are some things to keep in mind:
1. Not all television networks are created equal. Know the editorial focus of the network, as well as the hosts. The Television Food Network is kind and gentle; Spike TV is edgy.
2. Read the release documentation. Most, if not all, standard agreements include language that gives the show all rights to use your likeness and product in any media in any manner they see fit forever. Is there an escape clause that allows you to back out before a certain time?
3. Consider the intellectual property implications. Will showing your product to a network or show constitute public disclosure? What happens if the network previews the product to a focus group? You may jeopardize any future domestic and foreign patent rights. Consult a patent attorney.
4. Background check. Just like entering into any business arrangement, research the producers of the show to make sure they are who they say they are. Ask for references. What other shows have they worked on?
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