I'm a bit troubled but this new revelation after attending the Independent Inventors Conference at the USPTO last week.

• Many countries have an absolute novelty requirement so if you make a public disclosure about your invention, then you would not be able to get international patents.

Now, I ran across Brad Feld's interesting posing on How to Create a Sustainable Entrepreneurial Community and followed links to his new book Do More Faster. One of the authors in the book states that he does not sign NDA's when talking to entrepreneurs. I can see why because the are a pain and you can sign a lot of them in the course of doing business. I have also experienced the same thing from VCs (i.e. won't sign an NDA). Now here's the rub. Without an NDA, you make a your invention public and thus forfeit the chance to obtain a foreign patent. The NDA offers protection from public disclosure. At least in the US, you have 12 months to file for a provisional or non-provision patent from the first public disclosure to preserve your invention rights. It is my hope that VC, angels, and other will be more willing to sign NDA's to protect the future value of an invention.