Anyone can submit an idea to Premises, Premises, whether or not they're members. Just refer to the Submission Guidelines and fill out the Idea Submission Form below.

But note that you must be a member to join the discussion of your idea, read what others are saying about it, and (if you designate it to be Private), see who else has looked at it.

Submissions Guidelines

Text only. No pictures, attachments, links, or formatting. No Word files, no jpegs. If you can't express your idea using plain text, Premises, Premises isn't the right place for it. Diagrams and designs are great, but they're not something I want to get into having to review just yet.

Less than 300 words. The shorter, the better. If you need more than one to three paragraphs to explain your idea, it's either too complicated for Premises, Premises, or it isn't expressed clearly enough. If it's too complicated, do something else with it, like talk to an expert or do a patent search. I hope that Premises, Premises itself provides a good example of the kind of ideas it seeks. What this site does and how it works are explained (hopefully clearly) in the first two paragraphs of the FAQ.

Not obvious. There are lots of smart, creative people out there who have probably already thought of most of the ideas that occur to us. Maybe they've been tried already and you just never knew about it. Or perhaps technical and economic hurdles are delaying their progress. For example, there are lots of technically feasible things that people might want to do with their cell phones, but you can bet that most of them are already being pursued by the companies involved. It just takes a very long for everyone to develop and agree on new standards, and then deploy the necessary infrastructure.

Also, suggesting a movie version of an existing story, book, comic, or TV series, or a known historical event, doesn't constitute a saleable idea, unless you've also somehow added a significant amount of value that others can't. Short pitches like "High Noon in space" aren't enough.

Your most promising ideas probably come to you because you have knowledge or expertise that others lack. They're the things you realize are sorely needed where you work, or that others who share your hobbies or interests would also enjoy.

Not too technical or obscure. On the other hand, a Premises, Premises idea should be understandable to an educated layperson who's comfortable with basic math and science. You can't squeeze much background information into 300 words anyway.

Premises, Premises seeks a middle ground between ideas that are obvious and worthless, and the heavy-duty innovations that patents are for. I feel there's a need for a more open, less formal, form of protection for lightweight ideas that are interesting but shouldn't be considered patent-worthy. I hope that Premises, Premises can help fill this niche.

Priced less than $200 + 1% net. The maximum price an owner (the idea's author) can ask for an idea is $200, plus 1% of any net profit realized from the idea, as determined in whatever way is agreed upon by buyer and seller, and after whatever creative bookkeeping the buyer may engage in. As with everything else, figuring all of this out is between the buyer and seller, and Premises, Premises is not involved. Owners are encouraged to keep prices low and avoid asking for a percentage unless they also want to work on the idea, i.e. as an employee or contractor to the company that's interested in using it (which would be a great situation, of course). For idea owners who just want to sell without contributing in the future, I feel it should be enough to get the credit plus some nice souvenir money.

Questions? Email to submissions at premisespremises dot com