The Internet has overwhelmed our life in such a way that we have forgotten how helpful the good old library can be for research purposes. The internet has been a boon for inventors but the library still has its strengths that would be valuable to inventors.

The most obvious things that libraries provide are books of course! Complete books which are not available on the net, not all of them and not for free. A number of very helpful books can only be bought and they are usually expensive and published in limited quantities, or found at libraries. Books can provide the kind of in-depth data that may not be available on the internet. There would be times when your local library would not have a title that is required by you but libraries often network with other libraries where they can loan books that they do not have from a library that has it. Besides, several libraries also provide access to internet facilities so inventors who do not have a computer or an internet connection can get access at the library.

At your local library you would be able to find books detailing how other people have turned their ideas into reality. Though their product maybe different, their stories would provide you with invaluable insights into the process. You can also find detailed information about the kind of product you are working on, its industry and the various companies that manufacture and/or market it. The more you know about similar products out there the more effective product you can come out with and there may be cases where you realize that the idea you are working upon has already been patented, then it would be time to move on.

Librarians are people trained to find information. They are very likely to find you sources of information which you may have missed out, like maybe, some titles you never knew existed, a chapter or two in a book which you would not read, may contain the information you were looking for, same with magazines. You can also put in a request to subscribe to a publication that would help in your work. It can also be something as apparently simple as using the right terminology which a librarian can be very good at.

Then there are the big libraries with departments or librarians dedicated to business matters. Such libraries have subscriptions to various publications and websites which would be very expensive for an individual. These places are a gold mine for substantial information.

Inventors often have to tread a lonely path. And often, to achieve real breakthroughs, you have to think different. And what better way than to follow in the footsteps of two young guys, Larry Page and Sergei Brin, the founders of Google, who changed the world with their search engine? These guys dared to set their sights high and refused to compromise along the way. They overturned established norms and paved their own path.

If the thought of changing the world with your invention enthuses you, going the Google way is your best bet. Larry and Sergei have achieved their impossible dream with a strong commitment to their philosophy. Follow the path they’ve shown, and you’re sure to reach the heights you never imagined that you could.

Aim for the Sky

Make your dreams big. When you reach out for the moon, you may not quite make the cut; but rest assured, you won’t turn up with a handful of mud either. Break the status quo, think different! Strive to make the world a better place!

Banish Fear

Make sure your dream fires you up. Dare to make audacious moves, and never penalize for failure. Move fast, and keep learning all the way. No matter if you fail or make a wrong turn… pick yourself up, correct course and push ahead.

Be bold

If the guys at Google are afraid of anything, they fear fear itself. They are frightened of not being bold enough, daring enough… of not thinking big enough. Break the barriers and bulldoze away your mental roadblocks. You are the only one who can hold you back.

The story of Google is a story of dreaming big. Be sure to follow the philosophy that helped create he most successful search engine the world has ever seen, and you’d be well on your way to making your mark on the world with your own amazing invention!

Developing a product takes much more than dreaming up an idea, creating your product or service and launching it upon the world. There are many issues involved which, if not looked into, would kill the greatest product or idea.

Everyone is looking for new ideas and innovative solutions. This is good news for the independent inventor. But then the challenge here lies in the fact that new products are also being developed by established players who have hugely better resources than the average independent inventor.

As an independent inventor, the first thing that you should do is gain as much knowledge about products of the nature you are working upon, as any corporate executive already working in the same industry already has. This knowledge should include creative as well as commercial aspects. You should understand in detail the whole process that a product goes through in an organization from the idea stage through evaluation, research, testing, analysis and the amount invested. You should have a thorough understanding of how your targeted industry works. You cannot expect to have a great idea for Pepsico and land in its offices, to be greeted by its smiling executives who will be ready to hear and encourage you.

Apart from that, there is also the marketing perspective which an inventor should be well aware of. The retailer who is going to put your product on his shelf would have to remove another product, which maybe, has an established record of selling. In order to convince the retailer to put your product up there you need to have all the information about that product which your product will replace and how it will be more profitable for the retailer. You should be ready to answer all his questions and back it up with proper reasoning and data.

In short you have to be alert and completely updated about the latest developments and innovations happening in the area of your interest in order to come out with effective inventions.

From the United States Patent and Trademark Office

•Provisional Patent Application - www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/provapp.htm
•Registered Patent Practitioners - http://des.uspto.gov/OEDCI/GeoRegion.jsp
•Patent Information - http://www.uspto.gov/main/patents.htm
•Depository Libraries – www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ido/ptdl/index.html
•Independent Inventor Program - www.uspto.gov/web/offices/com/iip/index.htm
•General Information - www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/doc/general/
•Web Patent Database - http://patents.uspto.gov/

Copyright and Trademark Information

•From the US Patent and Trademark Office - www.uspto.gov/main/trademarks.htm
•For Trademark information - www.inventored.org/trademark/
•For Copyright information - http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/
•Franklin Pierce Law Center, US Patent, Trademark and Copyright Information - www.fplc.edu/tfield/ipbasics.htm

Invention Evaluation

•UIA Innovation Assessment Program - http://www.uiausa.org/Default.aspx?page=129
•US Dep’t of Energy’s Inventions & Innovations Program - http://www1.eere.energy.gov/inventions/
•Washington Innovation Assessment Center - http://www.business.wsu.edu/iac
•Wisconsin Innovation Services Center - http://academics.uww.edu/business/innovate/default.htm

Patent Related Information

•United States Patent and Trademark Office - http://www.uspto.gov
•Patent & Trademark Depository Libraries - http://www.uspto.gov/go/ptdl
•National Patent Association - http://www.nationalpatent.com
•National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts - http://www.nesta.org.uk/withflash.html
•Franklin Pierce Law Center, US Patent, Trademark and Copyright Information - www.fplc.edu/tfield/ipbasics.htm

Funding Sources

•Energy TechNet - http://www.energytechnet.com
•National Science Foundation - http://www.nsf.gov
•FinanceNet - http://www.financenet.gov
•SBA Procurements and Grants Hot List - http://www.sbaonline.sba.gov/hotlist/procure.html
•Small Business Innovation Research Program - http://www.sba.gov/SBIR
•National Institutes of Health Grants & Funding Opportunities - http://grants.nih.gov/grants/index.cfm

Help for Inventors

•Center for Design & Business - www.centerdesignbusiness.org
•R.R. Enterprises, Inc. - http://www.rjriley.com
•InventNET: The Inventors Network - http://www.inventnet.com
•Energy TechNet - http://www.energytechnet.com

Marketing and Licensing

•Small Business Administration - http://www.sbaonline.sba.gov/starting/businessplan.html
•Licensing Executives Society - www.usa-canada.les.org
•Ed Zimmer’s Entrepreneur Network - http://tenonline.org/index.html
•Licensing Consultants and Brokers Directory - http://www.usa-canada.les.org/consultants/directory.asp

Legal

•Cornell Law School - http://www.law.cornell.edu
•Franklin Pierce Law Center - http://www.fplc.edu

Manufacturing

•ThomasNet - www.thomasregister.com

by Michael Collins, CEO of Big Idea Group and author of “The Million-Dollar Idea in Everyone”

Judging the Hunt submissions is an iterative process. We go through each entry several times to make sure we understand the big idea in each, find best features, and uncover hidden jewels. One thing I learned from reviewing products at BIG Roadshows applies here as well—it doesn’t matter how many ideas I see or in what order I review them, the good ones will always stand out. A Hunt review goes something like this:

• After the Hunt deadline closes, we gather all the submissions, check that the entry agreements have been signed on each one, and we start the winnowing process.
• In the first pass, we simply familiarize ourselves with every idea submitted. Entries that have a sell sheet or some type of visual are tremendously helpful this stage. When you’re staring at a two-foot pile of what looks to be white-paper reports, those submissions with pictures, drawings, or a bullet-point list of benefits seem to jump out of the stack.
• Next we sort the entries into good, better, and best categories. The best submissions are those that meet the requirements of the Hunt, are unique, could be a springboard for a line of products, and have few barriers to actual implementation. We also look for good ideas that we can improve on behalf of the inventor, or ones that if combined with another inventor’s submission improve both of their ideas—making sure to compensate each person accordingly.
• Finally, we put the best and the improved ideas into a formal presentation for the client. Although some of our customers like to see every submission, most prefer we use our judgment to narrow the list first.
• Following the presentation and a brief period to let the ideas germinate, we conference with the client to select Hunt winners. The client has another, more extended, time period to decide whether or not to put any of the ideas into development.

Although we would love to give feedback to all participants in a Hunt, the number of entries prohibits us from getting back to each person individually. And confidentiality requirements prevent us from publishing winning ideas. The only inventors who will hear from us directly are those who won a cash or merchandise prize or whose entries the client is interested in pursuing. Once the names of the Hunt winners have been announced on our web site, however, inventors are released from the submission agreement and are free to pursue the submitted ideas on their own.

Inventions are a labor of love for their creators. But more often than not they attach a greater value to their inventions than they really deserve. This is only the first handicap when it comes to finding prospects for their inventions. Inventors are basically…inventors, what else? They are not salesmen, just the way salesmen are not inventors. So when it comes to selling it isn’t a wonder that most inventors lose their way and give up or end up with a bad deal. This is where an Invention Marketing Agent (IMA) comes in; they bring together the right combination of inventor and licensee together and work out a deal which is fair to both parties and legally applicable.

Inventors would do a better job of finding the right IMA if they understand how they go about their work. IMAs charge what appears to be a shockingly high 20% to 50% of the royalties that inventors get; the reason behind this is that they have to work very hard for the inventors. Their work includes traveling and meeting people which is expensive and time consuming. Inventions are sold on the basis of their perceived potential and they may succeed as well as fail, so licensees usually do not offer any advance on royalties. If the product is successful then the money may take as long as two or more years to flow in on the other hand so many inventions fail due to various reasons. All this puts an IMA in a position very similar to the inventor where he is investing huge amount of time and effort for profits which may or may not come, so he makes sure that whatever invention yields profits makes up for his investment as well as losses from other ventures.

Most IMAs turn down majority of inventions because they may have their own preferences or they believe that the invention may not have enough potential in the market. Some IMAs may charge an upfront amount to handle the invention but unless there is a way of knowing the credentials of such people its better to avoid them.

There are firms that advertise in various magazines and make glorious promises to make you rich; but the best way to deal with them is to avoid them! Because they just lure in inventors with their fake promises, and keeping draining money from them on one pretext or another.

A good way of measuring up the potential of an IMA is to know that what percentage of the inventors they are approached by they actually take in as clients. The more fussy ones are generally the ones to go for, they would take in the cases they are confident about and not make empty promises. If you can get references of satisfied clients from IMAs that would be a very good indicator and the good IMAs should not have any problems giving that out.

Inventors’ Digest magazine and the Professional Members listings on the United Inventors Association web site at www.uiausa.org are the best places for finding and checking out IMAs.

The romance had long gone out of invention. The tremendous excitement that overwhelmed the senses when one read about geniuses like Edison and Einstein working in their labs, surrounded by all sorts of otherworldly equipment, putting together gadgets and ideas which were straight out of fantasy fables for those times. However, ironically, in the age of information technology with such fascinating progress taking place on an everyday basis, the inventor has long faded into oblivion giving way to researchers and R&D labs and images of men and women in white coats working precisely, mechanically in white clinical environments. A naked Archimedes running through the streets is just out of question.
Great ideas do fail and the best products may not always find takers. So ideas, and consequently the inventor, over a period of time became a relatively insignificant bloke, overshadowed by balance sheet requirements of huge corporations. They needed to pump money into the development of their product lines. Focus shifted on innovation and marketing.
But life moves in cycles and change is in the air. The small guys, the inventors are making a comeback, slowly, but surely, because the big ones, the giant corporations have grown too large, too have fun and invent things just for the heck of it. Invention at such places happens mostly as an accident or maybe as a bonus.
This is where the “little guys” of today come in. Their motto is invention for its own sake. Unlike the mentality of big corporations who have to justify their inventions with their core services, these inventors come out with products which end up satisfying variously different needs and purposes.
Firms are popping up, whose sole purpose is to encourage and support people with ideas for inventions, from concept to production to final execution. Some such inventions include cardboard cans for carbonated drinks, robotic arms hands for specific uses and stair climbing wheelchairs.
Even big firms are waking up to their significance. They have realized that there are significant emerging areas like biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and medical electronics-fields where smaller firms have a substantial number of patents. These corporations have also begun focusing on short-term product cycles which could have long term impact. Plus venture capitalists have become vary of the so called “brilliant schemes” that eventually flop and demand to see important patented inventions which would protect their investments.
The boom in information technology is helping inventors like never before. The internet has played a major role with the reach, access and tools it allows inventors to have, communicating with like-minded people, accessing patent databases, and above all, the internet treats everyone equally which has made invention a far more level playing field than before.

We’re always stressing the importance of market research and due diligence before spending too much time and money on your product. A great way to get a sense of what already exists, and what potential customers and manufacturers might think is to attend an industry trade show.

No matter where you live, you’re probably near a city that has a convention center. The taxpayers need to earn back all that money they spent building the convention center, so they try to schedule as many events as possible at these places. Most likely that convention center near you will have at least a few trades shows or expos in your product’s industry. Many times it’s free to go to trade shows if you pre-register, and less than $20 if you buy at the door.

When you get to these shows, get a lay of the land. Scope out similar products and potential competitors. Ask questions about pricing, marketing, and retailing. Be sure to take notes and write all this information down as it will be crucial in putting together a marketing plan.

If you feel comfortable, you can even ask some of the exhibitors what they think of your product, if they have any recommendations or insight.

Spending a little time at trade shows and events, meeting industry professionals and companies, can really give you much better insight into whether you have a viable product or not. Remember the goal is not to be working on AN invention, but working on the RIGHT invention.

These are some of the inventors from the North Plains Inventors congress. We have two other videos in our blog, and a video of the expert panel in our Education section on patents.

If you haven’t heard of the google patent search tool, then hop aboard the google train.

Like many of google’s products such as search, photo sharing, and advertising, they make patent searches a cinch. Also, the search function is faster and quicker to use than the US Patent & Trademark Office patent search utility. You can easily view drawings with google whereas the USPTO site makes it more challenging. With google you can even download patents as a PDF to save the most relevant ones.

Notwithstanding all the pro’s of using the google patent search, there is one major drawback that has been voices by none other than patent office Commissioner John Doll. His concern with the google utility was that it did pull up the same results consistently, which is important when you are trying to make sure you conduct a thorough search. If the search for the same word turn up different results, how sure can you be that you’re not missing anything?

If nothing else, the google patent search tool is a great way to get started doing your own patent searches, although it might be recommended you use it in combination with the USPTO tool. Happy searching!