We at Handi-Craft Company are happy to hear from our customers as we strive to continually improve our products and create new ones. While Handi-Craft Company appreciates, and from time-to-time solicits, ideas from outside the company, under our Idea Submission Policy anything that you submit without being solicited by Handi-Craft Company is non-confidential and Handi-Craft Company is under no obligation to avoid use of or to remunerate you for your submissions other than in accordance with our Privacy Policy. If you have an idea that you would like for Handi-Craft Company to formally consider, please read our Idea Submission Policy, and also read the Idea Submission Agreement. If this Agreement is acceptable to you, click the “I accept” button. You will then be directed to our Idea Submission Form. If you’ve already called us or mailed in your submission, we will not review it until we receive a signed Idea Submission Agreement from you.
Idea Submission Policy
The purpose of Handi-Craft Company’s Idea Submission Policy and Agreement is to prevent any misunderstandings related to the ownership of ideas and work product. Our employees are continuously working to improve our products. In our search for improvements in all our operations, we carry on a dedicated research program. It’s quite possible, for that reason, that your idea may already be known to us or available to us from someone else. Ordinarily the information we develop is kept private until we’re ready to make a public disclosure — usually after we have sought patent protection. We also have free access to much information from sources such as expired patents, publications, and products sold or used publicly. We cannot, then, agree to treat your submission as secret or confidential. If we did, it might prevent us from effectively using information available to us and our competitors from other sources. For this reason, no confidential relationship will be established, either expressly or by implication, between you and the Handi-Craft Company by way of your submission. Please understand that no claim to Handi-Craft Company’s existing technologies, product plans, or inventions can be made by you, regardless of any similarities between those items and your submission.
Since we cannot assume any obligation regarding the reception, retention, and consideration of an idea from outside the company, it is important that you consider protecting (e.g., by filing a patent application) your idea before you submit it to us. Additional information about patent applications is available through the United States Patent and Trademark Office website at http://www.uspto.gov, or you can seek counsel from a patent attorney.
Your submission is non-confidential and non-proprietary. Please disclose only what you feel comfortable disclosing on a non-confidential basis. If Handi-Craft Company determines, in its own discretion, to reach out to you to further pursue an idea, a more formal arrangement – including a confidentiality agreement – may be considered. While Handi-Craft Company appreciates your submission, we cannot guarantee that our employees will consider every submission, and you may not receive a reply of any kind. If we need to know more to help us assess your idea, we may contact you for further discussion.
Idea Submission Agreement
I agree that this submission is submitted gratuitously and without expectation of compensation. Since the company does not wish to receive or hold any submitted materials "in confidence," it is agreed that no confidential relationship or obligation of secrecy is to be established between the submitter and the company with respect to the submitted ideas and materials. No condition of confidentiality, express or implied, exists based on the receipt or consideration of this idea. Handi-Craft Company is free to consider my submission without further obligations to me. Handi-Craft Company shall have the unrestricted right to use and disclose any submitted ideas and materials. Any prior negotiations or agreements are merged into and superseded by the terms of this agreement, which may not be modified or waived, except in writing signed by a company officer.
Unless a formal written contract is subsequently entered into, I agree that no obligation of any kind is assumed by, nor may be implied against Handi-Craft Company in connection with the submission of this information, and then the only obligation assumed shall be that expressly stated in such contract. I further agree that no relationship of trust or confidence exists, nor is such relationship created or implied between Handi-Craft Company and the undersigned in connection with the submission of my idea. These terms shall apply to all additional disclosures submitted incidental to the original submission.
I do not, by this submission, grant any rights under any patents I now have or may later obtain covering the above-identified idea. However, I realize that an unpatented idea may have little or no value since it can be freely copied as it is put into use. Therefore, in consideration of the Handi-Craft Company evaluating my idea, I hereby release Handi-Craft Company and its officers, directors, and employees, from any liability for its use, if any, except such liability as may accrue under valid patents now or hereafter issued, or under a separate written contract.
I also understand that, in evaluating ideas, it is often necessary to refer submitted material to a number of different persons in Handi-Craft Company and its affiliated companies. Because positive identification of the contents of submitted material might be needed in case of any misunderstanding, I acknowledge that Handi-Craft Company reserves the right to make copies and retain any material which I submit.