November 2020
This is a brand new day, ladies and gentlemen. A brand new day.
—Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit
Sell first and sell fast. Speed is the key to profiting from a simple, short-lived invention. To increase our chances of quickly licensing our inventions, Stephen Key (inventor, author, speaker, and co‑founder of inventRight, LLC) recommends that we develop and use four selling tools: the point of difference; perceived ownership; a LinkedIn profile; and a list of companies that love open innovation.
The point of difference tells a potential licensee how your invention differs from marketed products and from prior art. This gives a potential licensee two things: confidence that your invention has unique benefits that customers might want to buy; and the perception that you could own a place in the market for your invention (ie, get a patent). A search for your invention on Google and in stores will show the difference between your invention and products like it in the marketplace. A search for prior art will show the difference between your invention and products (made or imagined) that are publicly known. Librarians in Indianapolis and in West Lafayette can show you how to find prior art.
Don’t waste time on a patent. A patent is not useful because the time it takes to get a patent (typically 25 months) exceeds the life cycle of a simple short-lived invention. But you need to persuade a potential licensee that your invention is marketable, that you potentially own a place in the market, that you could get a patent. Create this perceived ownership by writing and filing with the U.S. patent office a robust provisional application to patent your invention.
A provisional patent application is an instruction manual on how to make and use your invention. The application includes the invention’s point of difference, manufacturing information, and a detailed description and drawings of the basic invention and of all variations of the invention that you can imagine. A good set of detailed drawings is especially important because it allows translation of plain language (in a provisional application that you write) into legalese (required in a nonprovisional application that a patent attorney/agent writes). A provisional application can not itself lead to a patent but it does provide a timestamp for a nonprovisional patent application that can itself lead to a patent. If a patent attorney/agent is writing your provisional application, be sure to lead the effort and say what aspects of the invention you want protected. No one is as interested in your invention as you are.
A provisional application also provides perceived ownership by letting you mark products you sell as “patent pending” during the 1-year life time of the application. This lets your competitors know that they could lose an investment in copying your product if you eventually get a patent for it.
When licensing to companies, sell yourself as well as your invention. Companies need to know that they want to work with you. Your LinkedIn profile is your sell sheet. Create a complete profile that shows you as a professional product developer. If you are not on LinkedIn, you are not in the licensing game.
The best way to protect your invention is to license it to a medium-size company that loves open innovation. There are thousands of such companies. After you have a list of companies, remove those having several complaints and lawsuits (search Google for each company name and the word “complaints”), those that don’t have a department that handles outside submissions, those that want you to sign a nondisclosure agreement heavily weighted in their favor, those who want you to have a patent, and those not on social media. Then find which of the remaining companies fit your invention. Understand each company’s mission, product line, price point, and target audience. For example, PELEG DESIGN, which sells products worldwide, candidly says what it wants from inventors. Then use LinkedIn to connect with a company’s marketing manager and ask if you may submit information about your invention. When working with a company, act like you belong at the table and convey that you are easy to work with and are a team player.
Don’t buy what you don’t need. You don’t need a prototype to interest a company in your invention. Sell to a company the way the company sells to its customers. If you can’t sell the benefits of your invention, why worry about anything else? If a company is interested in your invention and it asks for a prototype, then build one.
Have fun but be smart. Don’t buy into fear. Sign a company’s nondisclosure agreement and don’t worry about theft. The value of an idea is almost always in the work you do to bring it to market and no one is going to steal your work.
For more on licensing, see the wealth of information at inventRight: articles, books, coaching, courses, lists of companies, podcasts, videos, and more. Both inventRight and IP Watchdog offer help with preparing a provisional patent application.
Thank you, Mr. Key, for opening our eyes to this new way of licensing our inventions!