BILL NUMBER: AB 2158	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Buchanan

                        FEBRUARY 20, 2014

   An act to amend Section 22370 of the Business and Professions
Code, relating to business.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 2158, as introduced, Buchanan. Invention development services
contracts.
   Existing law provides for the regulation of invention development
services contracts and, among other things, requires that those
contracts be in writing. Existing law declares the purpose of those
provisions and states various findings regarding inventors.
   This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to that
declaration and statement of findings.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Section 22370 of the Business and Professions Code is
amended to read:
   22370.  (a) The Legislature finds that  , in the State of
California,  there are  in the State of California
 members of the general public who have ideas or inventions
that they believe have substantial commercial value  ,  but
 which   these  members of the general
public do not have the resources or expertise necessary to develop,
manufacture  ,  or market these ideas or inventions; that
these members of the general public are commonly referred to as
"inventors"; that these inventors are generally not people who earn
their livelihood from developing, manufacturing, promoting  ,
 or marketing ideas or inventions, from manufacturing or
marketing products, from publishing literary works or from owning,
operating  ,  or controlling commercial enterprises; that
 their is  a significant number of persons 
who  have realized that inventors are willing to expend
substantial sums for services represented to result in the
development, manufacture, promotion, sale  ,  or general
exploitation of the commercial value of their ideas or inventions;
that these persons are frequently known as invention developers; that
the invention developers' services are generally offered for sums
ranging from $500 to $5,000 plus either a percentage of the income
that may be derived from the sale or marketing of the idea or
invention or a partial ownership interest in the idea or invention;
that the inventors generally have a very passive role in the
development, promotion, manufacture  ,  or sale of their
ideas or inventions after the contract with the invention developer
is executed, usually doing little more than receiving periodic
reports from the invention developer; that an extremely small number
of inventors to whom these invention developers offer their services
ever have their products sold or marketed; that there exists  ,
 in connection with invention development services, sales
practices and business methods which have worked a fraud, deceit,
imposition, and financial hardship  upon   on
 many people of this state; that existing legal protection to
consumers is inadequate to prevent these abuses; that the invention
development industry has a significant impact  upon 
 on  the economy and well-being of this state and its local
communities; and that the provisions of this chapter relating to
 such   those  services are necessary for
the public welfare.
   (b) The Legislature declares that the purpose of this chapter is
to safeguard the public against fraud, deceit, imposition, and
financial hardship, and to foster and encourage competition, fair
dealing, and prosperity in the field of invention development
services by prohibiting or restricting false or 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 invention development services but not to
interfere with, or further regulate by this chapter, those persons
who provide researching, marketing, surveying, or other kinds of
consulting services to professional manufacturers, marketers,
publishers or others purchasing  such   those
 services as an adjunct to the traditional commercial
enterprises in which they engage as a livelihood.