If You Have An Invention Idea, KEEP QUIET...Then Do This

What To Do When You Have An Invention Idea

“What do I do if I have an invention idea?”

​For decades, even centuries, this has been a major question that prospective inventors have asked. You have an idea and you know that the world needs to be introduced to it - what now?

​Don't let your brilliance be a supernova.

We're going to talk about how to take your idea through the proper steps of vetting, researching, elaborating, patenting, all the way up to selling it for a profit.

For an inventor who has thought of an idea that would be useful to the public, knowing how to transform that idea into a tangible result is paramount.

As valuable as the invention idea itself is, without translating it into a tangible and feasible product, it is useless. It burns bright one minute, gone the next.

Kind of a shame actually...inventors add innovation to the world, but what that really translates to is this:

Have you ever been frustrated at something - anything - in your daily tasks or routine? Anything?

It could be ketchup that won't come out of the jar and you feel like you're wasting money. Maybe the car seat for your kids is so frustratingly difficult to install or operate that you thought, "there must be a better solution".

If you run through your daily life tasks, I'm sure you will find something that you think could be improved upon. 

But an invention idea that never gets out of the idea stage takes away what could make life as we know it better, more efficient, or less frustrating!

So that said, it's safe to say that an untranslated idea is of no value to the inventor or to the world.

​It's time to transform invention ideas into a viable, commercial, and marketable products.

Starting At The End: The Road To Making Money From Your Invention Idea

​In translating an idea into a viable invention, there are two distinct ways a prospective inventor can decide to tread: You can decide to manufacture and market the invention personally, or choose to license the invention to another party who would see to the manufacture and sale of the invention.

Either way, it is critical to protect the idea by filing a patent application to ensure that your idea is not stolen or reproduced by another inventor.

Patenting helps secure your fiscal future as an inventor. 

But there are a number of steps to take before you get there, so let's do a review of the process you should follow when you have an invention idea and want to take it to market.

There are four major steps required to transform the idea into a viable invention; this all happens before you sell the idea as a product, process, component, etc. These include:
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• Documenting
• Researching: patentability and marketability research
• Prototyping
• Provisional patent application / Filing the patent

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Properly Document Your Invention Idea

​Simply having an idea - even if it's a groundbreaking idea - is not really worth its weight in gold.

You need to make your idea valuable. 

A valuable idea is one that can be sufficiently proven out.

So how do you prove an invention idea out in the early stages of the process?

Inventors need to justify when and how the inspiration for their product idea came about. In this vein, it's crucial to exhaustively write down or document everything that is related to the invention idea.

There should be adequate explanations of exactly what the invention is, how it would be made, what it looks like (sketches, diagrams, etc.), what it does, how it affects the public and how it would be marketed.

Documenting an idea represents the first big step toward getting an invention idea patented.
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As an inventor, a journal is the perfect place to express and write down ideas throughout the entire course of the process of inventing (and patenting).

There should also be a witness to sign the journal (notary, even better), just so it holds in the court of law should the need ever arise. (As a side note, if you do have a witness, you may consider signing an NDA or other confidential agreement with them to ensure your invention idea remains yours!)

The journal to be used for documenting the invention idea should be a bounded notebook with consecutively numbered pages. The pages must not be removable or refillable. 
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Why Should Inventors Document Their Ideas?

If you're serious about having your invention idea come to fruition, at some point you will have to prove that the idea was yours.

Documenting every detail from day one is a surefire way to prove to any court or lawyer or other entity, at any time, that you have been cautious, proprietary and systematic in your approach to bringing your idea to life.

If you are maintaining a meticulous, dated, progressive and informative journal and record of your steps, ideas and activities, then proving yourself the ideator and originator is going to be much easier.

​If there were ever a case where someone was trying to rip off your idea (don't think it can't happen), chances are you'll be able to make the stronger case if you've taken care of your documentation throughout the process.

Apart from proving yourself as the originator, a record of the steps and actions that surround your invention will help you go back, retrace steps, and apply different thinking to certain pieces of your invention idea.

In all practicality, fast forward a few months from idea origination, you may forget some of your thoughts or ideas on, for example, how your invention is made.

Now you can turn back to it and think differently - maybe even more creatively because you're better informed - about how it's made.

In short, documenting your invention idea is critical to getting a patent, and it adds efficiency to your invention process.
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If You Want To Patent Your Idea, It Needs To Be Well-Researched

​Both legally and from a business perspective, performing adequate research on an invention idea is critical.

After sufficient documentation as described above, inventors need to carry out two basic research initiatives on the invention idea: Patentability Research & Marketability Research. 

These pieces of research are guaranteed to save inventors time and effort, not to mention money.

• Patentability research: The world is full of brilliant minds, making it quite possible that your invention idea has been thought of before. Patentability research helps you identify if you are the exclusive originator of the idea. What more? It could have been patented already or filed for patenting and have a patent pending. Performing basic patentability research on your invention idea ascertains that other inventors have not patented the same idea and it can indeed be considered your idea. Apart from this, it is essential to perform a search of “prior art.”  Prior art searches are an official and/or legal investigation of whether or not your invention is already known. What a prior art search looks to dig up is whether or not another person or entity, regardless of location, has previously has portrayed in any way or made something that is, or uses components, very similar to those in your invention. 

• Marketability research: The most obvious question when you have an invention idea is "Can it make money?" That translates to a question of the commercial value and potential of the invention. To figure out if you've ideated something with potential cash value, initial research on how the target market of the invention will respond to it is conducted; this is marketability research. This is where inventors look to determine whether or not the invention is something the general public will find useful and are willing to spend their money on. Once you come to the conclusion that there is a viable market for your invention, the next step is setting the retail price - usually as low as possible to start. An inventor determine it's low enough by ensuring that the cost of manufacturing and distributing the product is low. Setting a low retail price ensures that your new product competes favorably against the existing and well-known brands in the same market. Adequately comparing the prices of these competing products can help to come up with a reasonable retail price - so this is the stage where you get your comparison shopping shoes shined up.

Expert patent assistance

OK, you have an invention idea.

​It's thoroughly documented. It's well-researched. It's actually your idea and you can prove it.
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Now What?

Prototyping Your Invention

Once you have seriously developed your idea out -- and after you made a conscious decision to pursue it and follow through, putting everything you have behind the concept of one day selling the invention for cash -- you've arrived at the prototyping stage.

Welcome to when it all starts to get really interesting.

The brilliant ideas you've meticulously written in your inventor’s journal are brought to life by building a prototype.

If you ultimately want to get a patent for your invention and sell it, having a prototype is essential.

I've written about what prototypes are and how to create them, but what else does the prototype actually help with?

The biggest benefit of an invention prototype is that it makes it easy for you to sell your ideas to potential licensees or lenders (who will come in handy when you need to market the product).

With a physical and practical model of the invention, it becomes easy to drive home valuable points.

To make a prototype of an invention, there are some steps that must be diligently followed. They include:

1. Start off with an adequate drawing. It is necessary to have a pictorial representation of the invention ideas in the inventor’s journal before setting out to create a model
2. Create a working sample of your design, using materials that make it possible to create a 3 or 4 dimensional model
3. Create a fully functioning model of the invention idea once the working model has satisfied all tests. An inventor can make use of varying kinds of resources to create a working prototype of the invention. However, if the cost of creating a prototype would be high, a virtual prototype that fully depicts the invention can be made, using computer animation. 

There is a more explicit explanation of prototypes here, but the point is that if you have gotten this far, you need to make sure you do the prototype correctly. It's going to be time consuming, but the return on the investment can often be immeasurable.

**Important Note**

Prototyping is actually not the only next step following idea development. It should be done concurrently with filing your provisional patent application, so please visit this page and read as well.

The provisional patent application gives a “patent pending” protection to the invention idea for a period of one year. This enables the inventor to carry out other required researches on the invention to ascertain its viability and continue to iterate on the prototype.

Help with prototypes

After you prototype your invention idea, you're stepping into the big leagues...
​It's Time To Patent Your Invention

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A patent gives the inventor the legal right to prevent the unauthorized use, sale or reproduction of his invention or invention idea, in the United States, and for a stated period of time.

Patenting ensures that an inventor earns profits from his invention without having to worry about another party ripping him off.

Apart from this, a potential licensee will only approach an inventor of a patented invention or invention idea (or if the idea is at least "patent pending" - read the provisional patent application page above for more on this). 

After satisfying the major steps as listed above, an inventor can then proceed to filing for a patent for his invention.

An inventor can decide to file for a utility or a design patent, depending on whichever he deems necessary for the invention.

While the utility patent protects the invention processes and parts, the design patent is concerned with the aesthetic properties and design of the invention. 

If you have concluded all the required researches and have perfected the invention, you can file for a non-provisional patent application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. If it's your first time, we recommend getting professional help with your application.

While it is possible for you to file for a patent with USPTO on your own, it is almost essential to hire a skilled attorney, patent agent, or other expert to liaise on your behalf.

This is important because a patent application is a technical and intricate process, which requires professional interventions to prevent the creation of exploitable loopholes in the patent application. 
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When hiring a patent attorney or agent, it is imperative to ensure that the agent or attorney is registered with the USPTO.

Also, the agent or patent attorney should be technically related to the kind of invention you’re trying to patent.

Often times, large patenting firms require exorbitant fees, and because of their large client base, they seldom work closely with individual inventors. Hence, it is sometimes better to pursue smaller firms who will often times work closely and diligently with the inventor and won’t charge so much.

Finally, agreements about fees and estimated costs should be reached before hiring an agent or patent attorney.

Need help with the patent process?

Marketing Your Invention

​I've added an extra section because not every inventor understands the marketing and business side of inventing.

The aim of turning an idea into an invention is to get it to the target market and make a profit.

Marketing an invention is the business part of inventing a useful product.

​There is no point manufacturing a product that does not get to the required market. It is therefore important to have a viable business plan.

Here, the inventor has to decide whether he wants to go into the production and sale of the invention or grant another manufacturing company the license to produce and sell the invention.

By embarking on the journey to personally manufacture the invention, the inventor is saddled with the responsibility of financing the cost of production, managing the production processes and seeing to the sale and distribution of the product.

He bears the total brunt of the manufacturing and distribution process.

On the other hand, the inventor also enjoys absolute autonomy over the success of the invention and associated profits.
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Conversely, licensing an invention to a manufacturing company ensures that the inventor is paid royalties for the invention.

Depending on the type of agreement reached, the inventor could be entitled to a certain percentage of unit or net sales of the product. The inventor also bears no production risks.
 
These steps will ensure that the road from conceiving an idea to the manufacture of an invention is a smooth one.

However, it should be noted that successfully navigating these steps takes a lot of time and efforts. Often times, it takes years to finally reap the fruit of your labor. 

Commercialize your invention