I was recently "enlightend" to an "article" that the us government can "take" a patent if they deem it necessary to them and best if not released to the world. any other knowledge on this and

hypothetically, if one were to successfully build an o.e. machine, should they patenet in the u.s. or outside the u.s. first to make sure it does in fact get released to the world.

One way to avoid the greedy b**tards evaporating an invention by means of seizing a patent, is to keep a video log-diary of the invention from start to end..... That's one of the many benefits of affordable, modern camcorders  .

I was recently "enlightend" to an "article" that the us government can "take" a patent if they deem it necessary to them and best if not released to the world. any other knowledge on this and

hypothetically, if one were to successfully build an o.e. machine, should they patenet in the u.s. or outside the u.s. first to make sure it does in fact get released to the world.

You know, you speak in a funny way. The purpose of the patent is not to "release the info" to the world.  The purpose of the patent is to provide protection for a novel invention.  In fact, good patent lawyers will describe the invention enough to grant effective and broad protection, but will not reveal more information than is necessary.  So that is just a crazy question.

I am having a hard time figuring out your organization.  On one hand, you want $5 to $10 million more to secure patents, and you also say that you guys have been well funded so far.  But you do not have a few hundred dollars to speak to a patent lawyer for a couple of hours?  He or she could explain all this to you, and it would be expert advice you could actually trust and make a business plan from, as opposed to the knee jerk "oh no, the government will seize your idea, make a video of it first" kind of drivel you get here sometimes.

So if you guys are really that flat broke and you cannot even hire a decent lawyer for a couple of hours, here is what you should consider.  First, do a Google search for secrecy orders, so you know what you are dealing with and what the risk really is.  Do not automatically trust what people tell you on here; do the research yourself and read the regulations.

If your decision is whether to first file a foreign patent before filing a U.S. patent, I don't think it matters.  The government will not care if you already have a foreign patent - a secrecy order could still be put in place.

You could try to break the patent down into multiple parts and separate patents to diversify the risk of one patent being placed under a secrecy order.

You could choose to not ever seek a U.S. patent.

Which is the right choice for you?  Who knows?  You definitely need to hire a lawyer.

I am curious
we have a business model in place, but how would you justify the upfront cost to different companys and a royalty amounts for such a product?? 

That is going to be tricky, and it's hard to say how it will shake out.  It depends on your invention and how well your patents are crafted to cover the various variations of it.

If you suspect the patent may be possible to get around or you just simply do not have the funds to litigate infringement, you may want to just strike a deal with a single manufacturer for exclusive license rights for X number of years for a high royalty fee.  You can even demand an up front fee as well.  This way, you can keep the invention still sort of secret for a while.  Only you and your partner/licensee will know the unpublished (in the patent) details about it until it is ready for sale.  Then, that company will have a commanding market share for a good while, and both of you will make money.

If you think your patents will really hold up and you have the funds to litigate potential infringement (now is where the $5 to $10 million figure is appropriate), you may want to shop your idea around more freely with the goal of signing up as many licensees as possible.

Also, I do not understand why you are trying to valuate the worth of potential licensees.  You are not buying these companies, you are going to be signing deals with them, deals that will affect what they can produce in the future, so current accurate valuations are not at all important.  I admit, you do not want to do a deal with a company in bankruptcy, but that does not require thousands of manhours to determine.

you are right on both accounts.
assume we have "the answer"
we would not want to do business and sell the license rights to a company in dire trouble.
but about the other way to value the company, of course the previous year will not be an accurate account of what they will be worth with this knowledge, but that past success can be used to get to a guage as to a "fee" for what the patents would be worth to their future value. cash and stock in the company may be the best bet here.
example, toyota is worth between 250 and 300 billion based on some very basic google resarch. what would be the up front fee and more importantly, the residual royalty???
gets tricky because our intetions are to try to make the rights to use the ideas as fair to all companys who could and would benefit from it, but keep in mind, the inventor and investors do want to "sell" the rights, not give them away.

That's sort of like someone selling a product, and the customer asking, "How much does it cost?"  The answer: "How how much have you got?"

Assuming your potential customer is a viable and healthy business, which, say, Toyota is, it really does not matter how much they are worth.  This does not affect the royalty rate or your fee.  What affects that is how much is the invention worth.  How much is it worth?  Incorporated into something like a car, that's complicated.

One factor is the cost of production.  Let's say Toyota can save $500 on the cost of every car by using your invention.  That's something, sure, and there is more.  If your invention results in a fuel savings, that makes the car more attractive to a consumer, so Toyota will be able to sell more cars and probably raise the price to boot.  That makes the invention worth much more.

You see, none of this has to do with what Toyota is worth.  If you want your accountants doing something useful, have them figure our the worth of the invention.

All that said, you should get a patent first, before you spend a penny on the other stuff.  Once you get a patent, you can get venture capital to help out with the rest.