Start Inventing: First 4 Steps for Inventors & Entrepreneurs

Since March 2013, the best option for American inventors for documenting their inventions has been filing a patent application, either a provisional patent application or a full patent application. This is good because there is less room for misinterpretation or disputes about who should get a patent. The patent now always goes to the person who filed the patent application first. However it does mean that you’re going to have to get into the habit of filing a provisional patent applications with greater frequency.

Provisional patent applications only cost to $65 for micro-entities, so you should consider it just a cost of doing business.

The provisional patent application is a fairly straightforward mechanism for documenting your invention with the US Patent & Trademark Office. However, there are a few important things you should know about how the PPA works so that you don't make a mistake that could risk your invention’s patentability.

This may come as a shock. Your invention may not be original. We know, there’s nothing like it on the market, therefore it must be original and a definite winner. Unfortunately, there are often unknowns out there in the market or in the patents that you need to go out and find out about. Although you will probably have to hire professionals at some point to do additional research, you should get things started on your own with a little quick and dirty market research and patent research.

In doing your market research, you’ll find out not only if there are similar products like your invention, you’ll also find out who is interested, who might become your customers.

Gaining an understanding of your invention’s patentability will do more than just help you decide if you want to move forward with your invention; you may also learn about problems that various other inventors have faced. It is very often the case that there are not just one or two patents that look like your invention. There will be five or six. But if nothing is on the market, it may be because previous attempts fell short of solving all of the necessary problems. It may be that in analyzing patents discovered in a search, you will be able to make revisions that will improve your invention’s patentability and marketability.

Spreadsheets are invaluable for keeping track of search results. If you don't have MS Office Excel, you can get free a free office suite at either OpenOffice or LibreOffice

Reduction to practice is the process of turning your idea into an “embodiment.” What’s an embodiment? An embodiment is either a working prototype or a complete specification, like what you would put into a patent application. Either way your invention is in a form where it can then be reproduced.

Although you can reduce your invention to practice just through your patent application, taking your invention through the prototyping process is a great way to refine and develop it to a point where it has greater potential for commercial success.

You may build a better mousetrap, but it’s far smarter to meet the world halfway than wait for them to beat a path to your door. In this section will learn about to pass people take for getting to the market.

There’s nothing more all American and building your own company! Building and selling your invention is tremendously challenging and risky, but you do have the potential upside of greater profitability and greater control.

Licensing is essentially “renting” your idea to someone else who will then commercialize it. Your profitability may be lower, but so is your workload.

Be sure to contact us at courses at inventorslc dot com if you have any questions. Good luck!

Registered practitioners are people, usually with a science or engineering background, who are credentialed by the US patent and trademark office to practice patent law. They come in two forms: patent attorneys and patent agents. Patent agents possess the single credential from the patent office, while patent attorneys are also licensed to practice law. Foremost patent work, you should consider them as equals.

Unfortunately, even in this day and age there are plenty of scam companies out there who prey on the naïveté of new inventors. We give you a few quick pointers for spotting and avoiding invention submission companies.

Two agreements that you will see a lot in your life as an inventor or nondisclosure agreements and work for hire agreements.