Contract for Securing Intellectual Property
<p>Is there any sort of legal contract in the United States (Rhode Island) one could make without a lawyer that would state that a disclosing party owns a certain idea and that the receiving party may not use it or show it without the consent of the disclosing party.</p>

<p>This would not quite be an NDA, since the disclosing party has already told the receiving party about the idea in the past (prior to the signing of the contract). The goal of this contract is to prevent the receiving party from developing the idea (which originated from the disclosing party) into an actual device.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Is there any sort of legal contract ...</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Yes, these are commonly called non-disclosure agreements. Anyone can draft them: lawyers do it more reliably than most.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>... the disclosing party has already told the receiving party about the idea in the past (prior to the signing of the contract). </p>
</blockquote>

<p>If so, the discloser is what is known as f*%#~d - a technical legal term. The receiver of this information can do what they like with it and has very little to no incentive to agree not to.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>The goal of this contract is to prevent the receiving party from developing the idea (which originated from the disclosing party) into an actual device.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>And why would the receiver agree? What valuable consideration is the discloser going to offer to bind the contract. The information is not consideration because it is ‘past’ and past consideration is no consideration. Something of value has to pass from the discloser to the receiver- $1 would be sufficient but the receiver has to agree.</p>

intellectual-property patents non-disclosure