Indiana Inventors Association

For an independent inventor, especially one new to an industry, there is no place better to learn and to network than a professional trade show (a large public display that promotes awareness and sales of new products within a particular industry).   Inventor Kenton Brett unpacked for us many of the benefits this tool offers. • Meet people who can help you. Engage with anyone who wants to interact with you.   Everyone there wants to do business and you never know who might be able to help you.   Someone who might become your friend, business partner, or client; who can answer your questions (now or later); who can connect you to the industry and make you feel like an insider; or who can give you a contract. There are no company gatekeepers at a trade show, so it is often easy to talk with a company’s leaders.   Scan the exhibitor directory to see who might share your interests (maybe the president or head of marketing of a company), note where their exhibit...

Patent attorney Michael Morris treated us to an overview of four ways the law helps inventors to profit from their creations. First, a patent , which is an agreement.   The inventor receives a temporary monopoly that lets him prevent others from profiting from his invention.   This negative right helps the inventor protect his share of the market and defends him from from claims of violating the patent rights of other inventors.   In exchange, the inventor gives his inventive idea to the world when his temporary monopoly ends. A patent is granted to an inventor by a national (eg, United States ) or regional (eg, European ) patent office.   The U.S. grants three kinds of patents: utility (for a useful structure or a method of making or of using a useful structure); plant (for a botanical plant that the inventor invented or discovered and asexually reproduced, except a tuber or plant found in an uncultivated state); and design (for the ornamentation of something m...