A few years ago Ed Blummet met a quadripeligic who was trying to learn to paint. The woman struggled with a lapboard to hold her work. “This is dumb,” Blum recalls thinking, “there should be something better for her to use.”
An upright, lightweight lapboard would solve the problem, Blum figured. So the 65-year-old Champaign resident and retired owner of several restaurants and dress shops started sketching.
Ten months ago, he cobbled together some materials but he didn’t know what to do next. Then one day, a friend mentioned an inventor’s seminar meeting to be held the next day in Chicago. Blum drove up and met Don Moyer, a patent agent and physicist who teaches at Columbia College and voluntarily runs the Chicago-based Inventor’s Council.
Today, several Amish woodworkers produce Blum’s upright lapboard in their home shops just south of Champaign. Blum says interest in the $60, patent-pending “adaptable lap” is heating up.
If you’ve got an idea for a product the world could use–or even better, a product that a specific market actually needs–read on. But don’t let any innovative ideas cross your lips, and avoid making margin notes and product sketches. Secrecy and legal protection will be important from the start, experts say. Moyer and other experts advise making a secret disclosure, writing down your idea, dating it and having someone else sign the document as a witness. (if you publicly disclose your idea, you have only one year to get a patent on it.)
Getting a new idea to market also calls for thorough research and, of course, money.
“The art of inventing is finding a shortcut, but when it comes to taking a product to market, there are no shortcuts,” says moyer. “You’ve got to do the work.”
“New product development” or “invention marketing” companies promise to handle assessment, research, refinement, marketing, advertising and distribution for a non-refundable fee ranging from a few hundred dollars to several thousand dollars.
But some people have been bamboozled by such companies, so if time compels you to call in a development firm, be sure to check client references and ask the state attorney general’s office about the firm.
Although the do-it-yourself approach takes time, it pays dividends, Moyer says. The library is your first stop and best resource. look at appropriate industry trade journals. The reference desk should have a copy of the standard rate and data service, which lists thousands of business publications.
“Pick out a few you think best represent the market segment you want to aim at, and start reading until you know those readers,” Moyer advises.
A product for a well-defined market will be easier to advertise and sell than one for a general audience, he notes
Figure out a low-cost production plan. and make a model of your idea, even if you use cardboard or workshop scraps to do it. “One key test of whether someone is serious,” says Moyer, “is whether they even try to make a model.”
Figure out how many you need to sell to earn back the cost of the patent, which, incidentally, will run $6,000 to $12,000 or more if an attorney does it. And that doesn’t include a patent search, which you’ll need to scope out your industry and your competition.
Scrutinize your product. If you invite anyone else to help you perfect, build or invest in it, make sure that person signs a non-disclosure or secrecy agreement to protect your rights to the product and sales revenue, even if your helper improves the product.
You can reduce cost and risk by doing your own patent search. That way, you learn about everything that’s ever been invented in the field.
“It makes the patent a lot stronger, and it will tell (an inventor) whether to abandon his idea before he spends a lot of money on it,” says Alexander Marinaccio, founder of the Inventors Clubs of America, based in Atlanta.
“If you pay for a search, often they’re not very thorough. There may be 50 (related patents) in there, and they don’t want to spend the time to pull all those patents, copy them and mail them,” Marinaccio says.
Search time also allows time to discover and make improvements before patenting. “The worst mistake an inventor can make is to get a patent too soon,” he says.
If an idea passes your research and perfecting phases and seems worth the money, it’s time to file for a patent. There are three approaches. You can do it yourself. But, says Moyer, “you can take out your own appendix, too. It’s tricky and dangerous.” Better, he says, to hire a patent agent or attorney who can word your patent to afford the broadest protection.
Filing a patent with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office costs $375 and may increase to $390 Jan. 1. Review and examination takes about a year, and examiners usually ask for revisions before granting a patent. During that time, the product carries a “patent pending” notice.
Most new products are manufactured and sold before a patent is in hand, Moyer says. Although it would be preferable to make the product yourself, many inventions would require you to license the rights to a manufacturer, who would then get a percentage of the profits.
If your patent is allowed–about 2,000 are approved every week–you have the right to bar anyone else from making, using or selling the product. “But you have to enforce that yourself–aggressively,” says Moyer. WHERE TO GET HELP
– Sign up for an Inventors Council workshop, held the second Saturday of each month at the Harold Washington Library Center, or call 312-939-3329 for advice.
– To reach the Inventors Clubs of America, call 800-336-0169. Membership information kit is free. Publications include “Mistakes Inventors Make.”
– To reach the Inventors Awareness Group in Westfield, Mass., call 413-568-5561
– To contact the Patent and Trademark Office in Washington, D.C., call 703-308-HELP. Publications include “Basic Facts About Patents.”
– To do a patent search, you’ll need a list of libraries with on-line computer access to the Patent Office. Write to: Office of Patent and Trademark Depository Library Programs, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, 2021 Jefferson Davis Hwy., Crystal Plaza 3, Arlington, Va. 22202; or call 703-308-5558.
