» The Invention Process
Although protection must be your highest priority when you have an idea, realistically it is a small part of the overall challenge. Getting ideas into the marketplace represents the major obstacle facing you.
YOU DON'T NEED A PATENT....YOU DO NEED PROTECTION!
Did you know that large companies do not immediately file for patents when new product ideas are developed? They take advantage of a little known provision of the patent law to establish prepatent protection.
The good news: You can use that same provision to protect your ideas! This is it ... the U.S. Patent Law protects the first to invent - NOT the first to file for a patent.
As opposed to the very costly and time-consuming patent process, "first to invent" protection is easily and inexpensively established. It is done through documentation of your idea (much like keeping a diary) in a specially constructed logbook. Companies call them "laboratory notebooks" and they've used them to protect ideas since the patent law was established in 1790.
Through this simple process, priority under the patent law is established just as if you had applied for a patent! Once that is done, you're ready to concentrate on marketing ...
MARKETING IS WHERE THE ACTION IS!
Typically, inventors give little thought to how they're going to get their idea into the marketplace, spending too much time worrying about making a prototype or working model. It is important to understand that it is the "concept" — what it does — that has value; not what it looks like, what it's made from, or even how it works.
That's why we strongly urge inventors to sell their ideas to manufacturers and let them worry about final design and functionality. But here's an even more compelling reason to sell or license your idea to a manufacturer ... they have a broad distribution network already established in the marketplace. Plugging a new product into that network means instant nationwide — if not worldwide — sales of your product! Rather obviously, that would take years to accomplish on your own.
THE BOTTOM LINE
You Can Make More Money by Getting a Small Percentage of a Big Company's Huge Sales Compared to All the Profits (If Any) on Small Sales As You Struggle to Get into the Marketplace!