Just as an alternative point of view. The first thing is to establish what the inventor actually wants. Intellectual property is a very hard master, especially in these litiginous times.
If he wants to make a fortune and retain ownership then he may have a long and unrewarding haul ahead. You mentioned that he is an older person, if he is not in serious need of money it might be more value for him to get recognition and see his work bear fruit, and reasonably soon.
In which case publishing the design to establish his prior art, and inviting the open source community to do what they can with it might turn out very rewarding. Universities would probably jump on it as a great source of interesting problems for their students, companies might feel they have to give it a try because their competitors might, small innovators might use it to steal a march on their more established competitors, etc etc.
And actually the financial rewards might turn out to be quite satisfactory. As the inventor his services might be in great demand by those who want to adopt it, especially if there's a bit of black art in there somewhere.
Chris
.........................Chris RustDriver, Nether Edge [log in to unmask]
> Date: Mon, 25 Nov 2013 14:08:24 -0600
> From: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Advice needed
> To: [log in to unmask]
>
> On Mon, Nov 25, 2013 at 11:35 AM, Terence Love <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> >I'm being asked to recommend a way forward [about a novel engine design] and
> I welcome advice.
>
> Hi, Terry.
>
> Since Australia is a first-to-file (rather than a first-to-invent) country in
> terms of patent law, I would advise the inventor to talk to a good patent
> attorney immediately (and not to show, or talk in detail about, the engine
> to anyone else in the meantime). I think his first priority should be
> protecting
> his invention rather than finding an investor.
>
> Carma Gorman, Ph.D.
> Associate Professor, Design Division
> Department of Art and Art History
> The University of Texas at Austin
> 1 University Station D1300
> Austin, Texas 78712–0337
>
>
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