Have an Idea or Invention? Important Steps to Take.

Have a great idea for a product? I can tell you from personal experience, some simple steps to take to hopefully get your product or idea through a sometimes intimidating process.

First, you should have a Non-Disclosure Agreement signed by anyone that you discuss your idea or project with as protection so someone doesn't steal your idea. You can find templates free online and also in some books that cater to licensing your inventions.

Below are some questions to ask yourself before you even contemplate filing for a Provisional Patent or Patent with the United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO).

1) Does your product solve an everyday need? Is it a trend or fad type product? Are you going to go through an Invention company or go it on your own. I'd suggest you do a Better Business Bureau (BBB) search on a company first for your own protection.

2) Have you done a Patent search? Have you on your own or with an attorney, conducted a thorough Patent search on the USPTO's website? Remember, you cannot create the same product that already exists because you may be infringing on someone's Patent and they could sue you for Patent Infringement. Also, the USPTO will reject your Patent application because the product already exists and they will cite the Patent Number.

3) Do you have a prototype? Do you have a working model of your idea or invention?

4) Are you looking to license your product? A License Agreement is when a company pays you royalties for use of your product for a certain amount of time? Are you interested in marketing your product here in the United States or in other parts of the world? Or, are you selling the rights outright to a company? I would recommend having a Patent attorney look over any contracts.

5) Are you prepared for the financial aspects of bringing your idea or product through the process? Ideas and Inventions can be expensive. A Provisional filing (good for one year) of a patent for a Sole Entity (a person) is about $100.00. To file a Patent through a Patent attorney can be between $6,000-$15,000 depending upon the product. Once you take the first step of filing a Provisional Patent, you have one year before you have to file for a Patent with the USPTO, otherwise you lose your original date of your Provisional filing.

Once you file for a Patent, you can still market your product while you are awaiting a decision from the USPTO. Keep in mind, that as of June 2011, the USPTO has a backlog of 1.2 million Patent applications to review and it is taking about 3 years to receive an answer from them according to a news report on MSNBC. 

There are different ways to go regarding financing your product or idea. You can go directly to a company and hope you can get a meeting (don't disclose your idea over the phone) and they will take on the costs of your idea or product, or there are Angel Investors that will require a Business Plan and significant returns on your product or idea. If you are financially solvent yourself, you can hire a company to manufacture and distribute the product yourself. You can borrow funds from friends and family (which I wouldn't recommend, I'm just saying...).

If you should be so lucky to secure a deal to have your idea or product brought to life (and I'm rooting for ya) with a Patent or without, you might want to hire or retain a Patent Attorney to look over contracts and also to make sure no one is infringing on your great idea or product.

Good Luck!

I'mjustsaying...