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Article I - General Provisions

      (815 ILCS 620/Art. I heading)ARTICLE I. GENERAL PROVISIONS

(815 ILCS 620/101) (from Ch. 29, par. 101)     Sec. 101. Short title. This Act shall be known and may be cited as the "Illinois Fair Invention Development Standards Act". (Source: P.A. 81‑542.)

(815 ILCS 620/102) (from Ch. 29, par. 102)     Sec. 102. Legislative intent. The purpose of this Act is to safeguard the public against fraud, deceit, imposition of financial hardship, and to foster and encourage competition, fair dealing, and prosperity in the field of idea and invention development services by prohibiting or restricting false and misleading advertising, onerous contract terms, harmful financial practices, and other unfair, dishonest, deceptive, destructive, unscrupulous, fraudulent, and discriminatory practices by which the public has been injured in connection with such development services, but not to interfere with or further regulate by this Act, those persons who provide researching, marketing, surveying, or other kinds of consulting services to professional manufacturers, marketers, publishers or others purchasing such services as an adjunct to the traditional commercial enterprises in which they engage as a livelihood.     Representation of a client by an attorney in connection with the sale or licensing of an invention is not intended to be regulated by this Act. (Source: P.A. 81‑542.)

(815 ILCS 620/103) (from Ch. 29, par. 103)     Sec. 103. Definitions. As used in this Act, unless the context otherwise requires:     (a) "Invention Development Services" shall include at least one of the following: (1) evaluation of the market potential of an invention; and (2) representation of an invention to potential distributors or to potential manufacturers of the invention.     (b) "Contract for invention development services" shall include a contract by which an invention developer undertakes to perform invention development services for a customer.     (c) "Customer" shall include any person, firm, corporation, association, or other entity that is solicited by, inquires about or seeks the services of, or enters into a contract for invention development services with an invention developer.     (d) "Invention" shall mean any discovery, process, method, apparatus, machine, design, formulation, composition, product, concept, idea or any combination thereof.     (e) "Invention developer" shall mean any person, firm, corporation, association or other entity and the agents, employees or representatives of such person, firm, corporation, association, or other entity that performs invention development services, except (1) any department or agency of the federal, state or local government, (2) any charitable, scientific, educational, religious, or other organization qualified under Section 501(c)(3) or described in Section 170(b)(1)(A) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954, as amended, or (3) any person, firm, corporation, association or other entity that does not charge a fee for invention development services. For the purposes of this paragraph, "fee" shall include any payment made by the customer to such entity including reimbursements for expenditures made or costs incurred by such entity but shall not include any payment made from a portion of the income received by a customer by virtue of invention development services performed by such entity. (Source: P.A. 81‑542.)