Can I protect/profit from an Idea I have that would benefit a company I used to work for ?

I agree that making some kind of improvement to the system's design and filing a patent of your own might be the best way to approach this. If you go that route, one way to ease your way into the patent process is to file a provisional patent. This costs less than a normal patent, protects your invention for one year, and allows you to use the term "patent pending."

One thing to remember, though, is that you will have to find a company to manufacture the system for you. But if you have a big sale ready to go, you won't have much trouble finding interested parties. You will also have to work out an arrangement with the manufacturer of the current version of the system, since you'll be building on their patent with your improvement.

The best manufacturers to approach for any new, patent-protected product are the ones which already manufacture similar products. That being the case, the current manufacturer of the system you're referring to may actually be the best company to produce your improved version. You could improve on their system, patent your improvement, and approach them with the possibility of a big sale on the new version of the system.

As an alternative, you could simply approach the manufacturer of the system and work out a deal under which you will be paid a fee if you are able to sell their system to your former employer. But you'll need to stay tight-lipped when they ask who your sales prospect is. They will try to pry that information out of you.

Wrong. This is actually worse than nothing because you would be deceiving yourself that you have somehow 'protected' an idea where in fact you have done nothing of the sort. And if you found an lawyer that would play that game you just got screwed twice.

~Bill

So really what you're going to have to do is sell the benefits of using sms rather than traditional mail and why they should use you. You can probably find the right people on linkedin - names etc.
Maybe you can offer to do it on a small retainer upfront with an ongoing percentage of the sales you can get for them via sms.

Good luck.

Rich

Positioning determines what you can make and your position sucks. You can't charge a fat consultant fee if you can't fly to corporate headquarters. Maybe you can find a big time consultant who lives near you who would be willing to partner with you. You call the company you used to work for and introduce him to the local management. He gets them to introduce them to corporate and he flies up there. You get a part of his consulting fee.

As a patent attorney, I represent clients with new ideas/inventions that are being pitched to larger companies. I'm almost always able to get an NDA in place.

Vendzilla is correct, if this is a product or a process, you should get a patent application on file before talking with any company about your idea. I recommend this to all of my clients and this is the way that I work with them.

A provisional patent application can be done inexpensively and can be filed quickly to give you patent pending status, which also carries a little weight when presenting your idea.

I'd recommend the following:

1) Have a patent application on file before talking with any company or individuals about your invention;

2) Get an NDA in place before having any detailed discussions. Here's why: you have the provisional patent application on file. Provisionals don't publish. If you decide to keep your product/process idea a trade secret, you can abandon the provisional and it will never be public. Having an NDA in place would then protect you if you were to go the trade secret route.

Steve