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Showing posts from 2010

November 2010

“I don’t get no respect” – Rodney Dangerfield Sound familiar?  Getting past the gatekeepers to someone who can license your invention can be a challenge.  Gus Bigos (product scout for Evergreen IP ) explained why that is, and how a new-product development company (NPD) such as Evergreen IP, Big Idea Group , Edison Nation , Inventor Institute , inventRight , Pelham West , or The Carey Formula can ease your way.  (A list of other inventor-friendly resources is available.) The problem Most companies don't like to license an invention directly from an independent inventor.  Receiving disclosure of an invention (patented or unpatented) can harm a company’s efforts to patent its own similar inventions.  Licensing an invention untried by the market is riskier than buying a small company that has strong sales.  Optimal timing of a license agreement is hard to predict.  Coordinating expectations of a company and an independent inventor may require extensive negotiations and

October 2010

" To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment."      - Ralph Waldo Emerson " You can learn how to be you....  All you need is love ."      - Paul McCartney and John Lennon Sometimes, less is more. Imagine a dark June night in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee and a hillside full of fireflies .  At first, each flickers independently.  Then pairs, then threesomes, flicker together.  Soon tens of thousands flash as one, in rhythm.  They have no leader, yet their synchronized light show couldn't be better.  Just individual fireflies being themselves.  As glorious as these creatures are, they aren't unique. Nature is filled with self-organized complex systems.  Rhythmic breathing synchronizes the heartbeats of a mother and her unborn child.  An athlete playing " in the zone " amazes onlookers.  Doctors use sandwiches of spontaneously synchronized superfluids ( Josephson ju

August 2010

A patent can be a marvelous tool that helps you build and tap the market value of your invention.  Or it can be a useless burden that drains your time and money.  As with a hammer, you can hit the nail on the head or you can just injure yourself.  Patent attorney Elizabeth Shuster helped us understand what kind of tool a patent is by treating us to an overview of patents – what they are for, what kinds there are, what they are made of, how they are made, and how to use them. Uses of a Patent A patent gives you the right to prevent others from benefiting from your invention without permission.  That right to be negative can help you carve out a place in the market for the invention, persuade a business to license the invention, persuade potential customers to buy products that exemplify the invention, gain a reputation as an inventor and as a leader in your field, or stimulate growth of an industry.  But even though you have a patent, you might not be allowed to benefit from your own i

June 2010

Abby Appelt (president of BlingToGo and owner of Out Of The Box Thinking, LLC ) helps heal people by lifting their spirits.  Her ornamental wraps return to ailing people some control of their lives, by helping them turn their institutional medical equipment into a fashion statement.             Invention      The Need Finding herself on crutches for the fourth time, Ms. Appelt decided to cheer up herself and her commiserating friends by decorating her crutches.  The warm response and good feeling she received led her to explore ways of extending that benefit to others.  Why settle for decorating crutches when you can also beautify bed rails, canes, IV poles, hospital tables and trays, and walkers?      The Solution A nurse told Ms. Appelt that any ornamental wrap used in a hospital would have to be sanitizable and removable, easily and without leaving a residue on the equipment.  So she looked for and found a suitable commercially available fabric coated with pressure

May 2010

Inventors usually need to describe their inventions - to other inventors, to business associates (designers, distributors, engineers, investors, manufacturers, marketers, patent office examiners), and to customers.  A detailed drawing of an embodiment of an invention (object or process) is one of the clearest and most concise descriptions of what the invention is, how it is made, how it works, what result it produces, and how it is unique or better than similar inventions.  Mr. Jerry Mandell of Sandhill Crane Design described the drawing services he provides to inventors by showing us some of his computer-generated 2- and virtual 3-dimensional images and animations. Still images can be presented as exploded, cut-away, or transparent views.  The steps of operation and of assembly can be animated.  An invention can also be described by a virtual 3-dimensional prototype (rendered or photo-realistic), multimedia presentation, or video for a trade show.  Drawings can be saved as ste

March 2010

Inventors often license their inventions because they understand technology, but not business.  That’s fine if you just want to get paid for inventing.  But what if you also imagine a world transformed by your invention, and want to create that world by using business?  Business professor Mark Motluck of Anderson University offered us some advice on how to get started. First, realize that not every great technical idea is a great business opportunity.  Not many people will buy a cart if they don’t have a horse to pull it.  So find out whether your invention has, or or can be modified to have, economic value by using a:      Survey . Ask people whether they would buy your product, and how much they would pay for it. Ask them in person at places where they would buy your product (say at a shopping mall), or indirectly by mail, telephone, or through your website.      Focus group . Bring people to a neutral site and watch how they react to your product. What do they like or disl

February 2010

Mr. Patrick Turley (president, ballsystems technologies ) told us about a very useful service that his 40 year old company offers to an independent inventor -- affordable help with the customized design, low- to mid-volume manufacturing, or detailed technical description of an invention (e.g., electrical, electronic, firmware, mechanical, packaging, software, 3D animation, or data packaging for service level agreements). Talented engineers at the company are practical (all having worked at companies such as Delphi, IBM, and Raytheon) and spend most of their time working on projects for Fortune 500 (e.g., Allison Transmission, Delphi, Hewlett-Packard, Honeywell, or the U.S. Air Force), and other, clients worldwide.  But between those major projects, they help individual inventors. Mr. Turley offered us some advice on how to minimize the cost of those services. Do as much work as you can, before hiring the company, and be flexible about timing.  Quick projects that fit nicely between

January 2010

Although each independent innovator's path to market success is unique, successful innovators tend to share 2 complementary traits - the ability to act on incomplete or inconsistent information, and resilience.  We help manage risks to our market success by learning from other innovators and participants in the innovative process, by networking at trade shows with representatives who can open doors for us, and by thinking carefully.  But we can never eliminate risk.  For example, the timing of getting a new product to market is important to market success.  The market's rule often is "first come, first served."  In order to synchronize our innovative efforts with market demand, sometimes we must act before we have a perfect plan, before we have all the answers.  So we sometimes hit unexpected bumps in our path.  When that happens, resilience (keeping our eyes on the prize) helps us to learn from our mistakes, to recover, and to continue on our path. Mr. Robert Dunla