Well, as the coordinator for a think tank which happens to operate online, entrepreneurs are coming to me all the time and asking me about how to sell their great new invention or product. Or, maybe they haven’t even got to the development or prototype phase yet, but they have a great idea, it’s a new innovation that no one else has thought of, and they would like to bring it into reality, and either make royalties off the sales, manufacture the product themselves, or sell the idea to a larger corporation for a whole bunch of money. Yes, this is the inventor’s dilemma, what to do next.
The other day, a local inventor came to me for advice because I deal with people on the Internet all over the world, realize that I run a think tank, and so they asked me what they should do. I can’t tell you what this special invention is because it is such a great idea, and it is confidential. Nevertheless, I recommended that they go on to “Google Scholar” and search to see if anyone else has a patent. First, it won’t be easy to check because different industries use different buzzwords.How to start an invention idea?
There may be someone who has the patent for your exact invention and idea, almost exactly how you envision it in your mind, but to find it you have to get creative and search all different kinds of similar words to find it, and if it exists you do need to find it. Of course, if it doesn’t exist, then you’re in luck, then you can go to step two. If someone else already has a similar patent, see if you can find a different application for the device, or make the device in a different way. If you can’t, and they’ve covered all their bases, you might wish to contact the individual, and see if you can’t make and market their product, because many people get a patent and never exercise it.
In other words they never build the product, How to start an invention idea? never intended to, they just wanted to get the patent hold onto it, in case someone else did, and then they could get money from them. Also, sometimes patent holders have held their patents for a number of years, or decades, they might be willing at this point to allow you to produce their idea, for a few percentage points in royalties. Therefore, if someone already has the patent, you can work with them with some sort of exclusive agreement for a particular industry niche or application, and only give them a few percentage points. Everyone wins.
They just license the patent to you for your specific use, therefore you can start making it, and selling it. That’s just as good right? Sure it is, and you don’t have to go get the patent, you only have to give them a few percentage points – that saves you time, as the patent process can take years, and cost tens of thousands of dollars. So in this case, it might even be better. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on.
FYI: Oh, one last thing, I am not a patent attorney, and you do need to do a legal bona fide patent search even if you don’t find anything online before you start the patent process. You’ll need a good patent attorney for this, and be very wary of people promising you a turnkey patent online, not all of them are savory characters – how do you think I know that? Let’s just call it; hard knocks and experience.
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