Are NDA 'Prior Inventions' Clauses Safe to Sign?

BenderMan asks: "I own a small consulting company. Today I was asked by yet another corporate customer to sign an NDA with the increasingly popular 'Prior Inventions' clause. The gist of it is they want you to provide a list of all your past and current inventions and/or ideas so they can define and protect the intellectual property that they have hired you to build. Like many of us that lay awake at night, whilst the hamster wheel spins new ideas, I've got a number of un-patented works in various stages of development. Given that mutual NDAs only provide one year of protection, I don't feel obligated, nor do I have sufficient time and energy, to fully and properly document my inventions for an NDA. While these clauses are written with good intentions, the reality is that these valuable ideas would be placed in the hands of people that could potentially profit with impunity (Have you priced patents lately?). Unfortunately many companies are not willing to strike this clause from their contracts. Does Slashdot agree that this is a concern, and how have you dealt with these situations?"

Comments

Open question to Slashdot

[CrazyJim1]

I have an idea for a new style of cell phone interfaced with computer servers. What patent forms do I need to fill out? And what will it cost me? I'm very certain that this is 'the next big thing' and if I patent it, I would be able to rake in very much money. If this comes about, me making money, I'll share with the nice guy who posted to me how I go about patenting. I've tried the uspto.gov site and its too confusing. I've called, but they never sent out the forms to me.