Successful inventors know more than just a technical sequence of steps. Beyond that, what really makes them successful is the personality characteristics they possess. They have a mindset that enables them to make the right decisions when they need to be made. While this is a bit harder to learn and master than the steps of a process, it is no less important. In fact, it may actually be more important. That being the case, let’s explore what some of these vital personality characteristics are.

1) Developing a bias towards action.

By far the most beneficial characteristic of successful inventors is having a bias towards action. Very simply, this is a shift in thinking where you are more inclined to do something than do nothing. When an opportunity presents itself, you move quickly and intelligently to capitalize on it. When a problem arises, you act just as quickly to neutralize it and minimize the damage. This is a major change from the habits of non-successful inventors (and non-successful people in general), who are usually happy to twiddle their thumbs while waiting for answers to serendipitously appear.

This is fatal to your chances of success. Therefore, you should make it your business to develop a bias towards action as quickly as possible.

2) Being decisive.

Going hand in hand with the a bias toward action is the habit of being decisive. As an inventor, you are the point man, the rainmaker, the go-to guy. You don’t have a CEO, human resources department, or labor union to bail you out when things go wrong. It’s you or bust, and that makes being decisive an absolute must. Again, this is more of a mentality than a step-by-step process. You need to feel ice in your veins when the time comes to make a big decision, being prepared to stake everything on the choice you ultimately make. As the great philosopher Ayn Rand wrote,

“An inventor is a man who asks ‘why?’ of the universe and lets nothing stand between the answer and his mind.”

3) Having integrity.

One of the biggest reasons people strike out on their own to invent stuff is they want to escape the backstabbing, soul-crushing, opportunistic corporate world. They didn’t want to BS and backbite their way to retirement. Integrity is very important to them, and should be to you.

Therefore, you want to be percieved as a man of your word.You never know who you are going to need a favor from. The person you you talked down last year might be in a position to make or break you someday. Plus, it’s just bad form to screw people in order to succeed. Stay true to your principles at all times and you will have mastered a crucial success habit.

4) Staying focused on your main goals.

Focus is another “state of mind” characteristic that you must work at if you don’t already have it. Very simply, it means devoting the most time to the things that move your goals closer to realization. Direct marketer John Carlton has a term for this: Operation Moneysuck. As he explained it, top copywriters were wasting their time if they worked on anything that didn’t bring in the money. They were not making money when they were fixing the copier, arguing on the phone with vendors, or issuing a refund.

The top inventors intuitively know this.

They know that every second they spend on other things is time they aren’t spending on finishing, packaging, and marketing their product. Adopt the same mindset and you will be well ahead of the curve.

5) Loyalty to your goals

This might seem like the same thing as staying focused on your goals, but it’s really not. Loyalty to your goals is what you need when a seemingly (but not actually) better opportunity arises. As human beings, it’s easier to take your eye off the ball. Especially when you get caught up in what seems cool and glamerous right now. But if you want to succeed as an inventor, you cannot succomb to this temptation. John Carlton elaborates:

“But when you have a set of goals to measure any incoming opportunity against, you know exactly what to do. If the opportunity moves you closer to your goal, then you jump on it. If it doesn’t… well, you’re allowed to reconsider your fundamental goals, but when you’re dead set on something specific (like being an entrepreneur) then it’s easy to let even hot opportunities go (like taking another job with The Man, regardless of how attractive the salary is).”

For an inventor, this means ignoring naysayers who tell you your dream is hopeless. It means listening to your own inner voice instead of surrendering it to people who want you to drag you down to their level.

6) Developing Strong ‘Why’s’

Why are you an inventor? Why are you inventing what you are inventing? Answering these questions - really, firmly, no-doubt-about-it answering them - will take you a long way toward following through on steps 4 and 5. One of the main reasons people don’t reach their goals is because they never had good reasons for setting them. Maybe they picked an arbitrarily high goal to impress their friends or family. Maybe they picked a goal they intuitively know is impossible to reach, so they give up. The solution is setting goals that are A) realistic and B) you actually want and need to achieve.

Think it through in such depth that you can recite your reasons at 3AM when someone pulls you out of a dead sleep and demands to know what they are. Once you are this resolved in why you are doing something, you will be virtually unstoppable.

Eric Corl is the President of Idea Buyer LLC, a new product development company and the parent company of IdeaBuyer.com. IdeaBuyer.com is a marketplace for new technology and products that gives inventors the opportunity to showcase their intellectual property to consumer product companies, entrepreneurs, retailers, and manufacturers.

Resources: Consolidate Your Invention/Patent Debt

Too many inventors make the mistake of inventing in commodity markets. That is, they create something that can already be bought from many other sources and is very hard to differentiate in a meaningful, price-increasing way. Marketing guru Perry Marshall provides some insight on this common mistake….

“What you sell should be re-packaged and re-invented to differentiate it from competitive products and make apples-to-apples comparisons difficult or impossible.

The worst thing a business can do is be just like everyone else. And the worst reason your customer can have for buying your product is that it’s the cheapest. Live by cheapest price, die by cheapest price.

There are many, many product categories that are commodity items. My definition of a commodity is something that can basically be bought and sold by the pound from a half dozen or more companies.”

Perry’s point applies just as much to inventing as it does to marketing. In fact, it’s the same issue: what you invent will, ultimately, have to be marketed to customers who will buy it. If what you create is seen as a run-of-the-mill commodity product, you have one foot in the grave before you even start. This is not what you want to do! What could be worse than slaving over an invention for months or years, only to find that no one is really excited to buy it? This condemns you to what Perry calls “the pathetic life of the lowest bidder.”

“It’s easy to think customers only want the cheapest price, but that’s only true if nobody gives them a reason to pay extra and get more. Another Internet example: I don’t particularly care for AOL, but they have done a very admirable job of packaging their service such that it can’t be directly compared to other Internet Service Providers. Features like AOL Instant Messenger have proprietary features that other providers can’t duplicate. AOL has always made it very easy to install their software and they’ve distributed their CD’s to just about every living creature in North America. This is how they’ve maintained a price over $20 while many of their competitors went broke trying to do it for free.”

There is a parallel lesson here for inventors smart enough to see it: focus on higher level inventions.

The reason is simple. Higher level inventions (such as electronics, software, construction tools, systems, or anything that solves a pressing yet unsolved problem) allow you to stand out. It’s easier to put your unique fingerprints on a product that takes specialized skills or knowledge to create. This is not merely an aesthetic issue, either. It’s not just about the pride of knowing you have a unique product. (Although that’s nice, too.)

It is often literally the difference between success or failure. Like Perry said - if you don’t give people a reason to pay more, they won’t. Let’s apply this thinking to an example.

You’ve decided to invent something that will boost a car’s gas mileage. All else equal, this is a great market to invent for: lots of demand, hundreds of millions of potential customers with a very big itch to scratch. But if you’re not careful, you still run the risk of painting yourself into a “commodity corner.” You probably wouldn’t want to invent yet another bottled fuel additive that “erodes engine gunk to free up lost horsepower and gas mileage.”

Why not? Because 9 out of 10 people who know anything about cars know that those things don’t really work all that well. Plus, there are at least a half dozen different ones you could buy. Instead, you need to think about inventing something that solves this problem is a more clever and creative way. That’s why a very smart man invented something called the <a href=”http://www.tornadoair.com/HowItWorks.php”>Fuel Saving Tornado</a>. Unlike the many bottled products, the fuel saving tornado is a physical device that you strap onto your engine. It fits any gas-powered car or truck and claims to boost your gas mileage by 1-2MPG by making it easier for air to pass through to your engine.

There have been some disputes about how well this actually works, but that is irrelevant for our purposes. The point is whoever invented this product knew he couldn’t risk being seen as a commodity. So instead, he created something that solved a problem on a higher level. By doing this he carved out a totally new image and niche one the bottled fuel additive guys couldn’t hold a candle to.

The overall lesson here is to challenge yourself to think about your invention in a different way. Look at it through the eyes of your target market and strive to think of something that will intrigue them. Something they cannot easily associate with the other products claiming to solve the same problem yours does. Pull this off and you will stand a far greater chance of inventing success.

Eric Corl is the President of Idea Buyer LLC, a new product development company and the parent company of IdeaBuyer.com. IdeaBuyer.com is a marketplace for new technology and products that gives inventors the opportunity to showcase their intellectual property to consumer product companies, entrepreneurs, retailers, and manufacturers.

A new T-shirt designed by EU researchers could assist athlethers with the ability to improve their performance and prevent injury. As part of the ConText Project, a project with the mission of producing clothing to measure electrophysiological activity from the body, this shirt can send muscle movement information to a computer using sensors.

These disc-shaped sensors are 12 millimeters wide constructed of three conductive layers. Two layers are made of knitted polyamide fabric and silver-coated thread printed onto it just as a logo would be printed onto a shirt. These layers are the shield and the sensor. The third layer is made of polyurethane for insulation. 

Sensors measure the electrical activity produced from muscle contractions. The electrical field created by this movement generates a small charge built up in the sensor, as muscles contract. The signal is then amplified by a circuit board and sent to a computer wirelessly. The results can then be analyzed. 

One concern with these sensors was that there would be interference from other waves such as radio signals, or interference caused from a shirt. However, attaching these sensors directly to skin makes natural performance more difficult. This new prototype will eliminate that problem.

“The sensor can even measure the [muscles’] electric field through another T-shirt—it’s very unobtrusive,” says Torsten Linz, researcher from Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration and team member.

This is possible because the sensors pick up the electric displacement current using a capacitive coupling to the body. This means there is a transfer of energy through measuring the amount of electric charge stored or separated. As a result, the sensor shirt can be worn over clothing instead of being applied directly to the skin with liquid gel. 

The prototype for the body-sensing shirt was tested on hockey players. From the sensors, the players were able to see how they were using their various muscles and how to adjust their movements for accuracy. 

It could also be useful for other sports such as tennis and golf that require repetitive movements. The computer would show athletes exactly which muscles they were using for each specific movement. Players could improve on their techniques and modify how they use their strength to further improve their performance.

Eventually, the device could also be used in training to help prevent athletes from straining muscles, therefore preventing injury. The computer could display of muscles that are being used and overworked, allowing athletes to adjust motions to enhance performance quality.

 
Sarah Crowell is a staff writer for Idea Buyer LLC, a new product development company that owns and operates IdeaBuyer.com- The Online Marketplace for Intellectual Property. The site gives inventors the opportunity to showcase their intellectual property to consumer product companies, entrepreneurs, retailers, and manufacturers. Edited by Lindsey Yeauger, Director of Communication, Idea Buyer LLC.

While many late night television commercials would have you believe that priority one is getting a patent, this is far from the truth.  That type of message is more about boosting their sales than moving your invention closer to success.

 The cold truth is that several important questions must be answered before deciding whether a patent makes sense. Some inventors are ready to proceed, while a great many others would be wasting their time and money. Use this quick and dirty checklist to see where you stand and what (if anything) you need to do before setting your sights on a patent.

 1) Does anyone want your invention?

 World-class direct marketer John Carlton once said, “a lot of people want to sell something, but just because you like it, that doesn’t mean anybody else does.” In this case, what’s true of direct marketing is true of intellectual property. It should go without saying that you should only patent something people want, but it’s astounding how many patent applications are sent in before the inventor has really established any demand at all for what he created. Obviously, this is not a situation you want to find yourself in. If you haven’t done so already, do some market research before you even think about getting a patent. Do not proceed until you can answer the following questions:

1)   Who are my customers? (age, sex, income, etc.)

2)   Where are they and how can I reach them? (what magazines/newspapers do they read?)

3)   What quantity (and quality) do they want? (are there surveys that gather this data?)

4)   What is the best time to sell? (Seasonal, yearly, etc.)

2) Do you have a commercialization strategy in mind?

Once you have established a market for your invention, it’s time to consider how you will capitalize upon it. Believe it or not, there are actually several ways of commercializing a patented invention. The more lucrative but increasingly less pursued way to be the entreprenurial soldier who takes the invention from the drawing board to the consumer. Under this scenario you will be responsible for creating, pricing, packaging, mass producing and getting your invention into stores. While undertaking all of this yourself is difficult and risky, you also stand to rake in the lion’s share of the profits. Other ways of commercializing your invention include selling or licensing the patent to someone who will do all the things discussed above. In this arrangement, you will make less money in royalties but also invest less time and risk. No matter what you choose, you should decide on one strategy or another before diving headlong into the patenting process.

3) Do you have a prototype?

Despite one infomercial’s claim that “any idea, big or small, can make millions!”, you cannot actually patent an idea alone. Instead, the US Patent and Trademark office will seek an “identifiable embodiment” of your idea; ie, a prototype or at least the early workings of one. While this might seem like a hurdle, you should actually embrace it! See this as an opportunity to get a head start on actually creating your invention, of leaving your comfort zone and marching boldly toward the day you discover whether your idea is really feasible. This will give you an edge over many first-time inventors and take you one crucial step closer to obtaining patent protection.

4) Are you going for a provisional patent first?

Most, if not all, inventors should apply for a provisional patent before a non-provisional (real) patent. Very simply, a provisional patent is a cheaper and greatly simplified way to get patent protection for 12 months. If you have ever heard a product advertised as being “patent pending”, that’s because the company in question has a provisional patent. What this allows you as an inventor to do is “test the waters”, and determine whether the market for your invention is real before committing to the expensive, years long non-provisional patent process. Savvy inventors use this window for all it’s worth, and you should too! If and when you have the above three steps under your belt, move straight to getting a provisional patent.

If the infomercial or shiny pamphlets didn’t mention these things, it’s because they get paid whether patenting your invention helps you or not. For this reason, you should dismiss invention advice that seems exclusively obsessed with starting the patent process. Instead, ask yourself the hard questions above. When you can confidently answer them, you will know with far greater certainty that a patent will move you closer to commercializing your invention.

About the author of this article:

Eric Corl is the President of Idea Buyer LLC, a new product development company and the parent company of IdeaBuyer.com.  IdeaBuyer.com is a marketplace for new technology and products that gives inventors the opportunity to showcase their intellectual property to consumer product companies, entrepreneurs, retailers, and manufacturers. You can email him at EricCorl@IdeaBuyer.com.

For 99% of inventors, filing a provisional patent is a smart decision. But what exactly is a provisional patent? What separates it from a “real patent?” The short answer is: a few hundred dollars and a lot less paperwork. But there’s more to it than just that. A provisional patent is a way for you to stake your claim, to get your application into the USPTO’s system, while you decide whether it would be worth it to get full patent protection.If you have ever seen a label that read “Patent Pending”, you know what a provisional patent is. For 12 months, you get the full protection a patent offers. In that time, smart inventors hustle to see whether or not there is a real market demand for their invention. If nobody is all that interested, they know it would be a waste to spend the time and money getting a full patent. If they are interested, they know it will be money well-spent. If you do decide to apply for a non-provisional (full) patent, your provisional patent is used as a starting point.

This is the USPTO’s official application for provisional patents.
SRC: http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/provapp.htm
Unfortunately, while it spells out each step of the process, it isn’t exactly what you could call “user-friendly.” So let’s dive into the meat and potatoes ourselves.

There are two main parts of a provisional patent application. The first part is the written description of what your patent covers. Arguably, this is the most important part of the application and the one you should spend the most time and energy making sure is accurate. About.com offers some helpful tips in this regard:

Writing Your Description

Under patent law “the written description of the invention and of the manner and process of making and using the same invention must be in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art or science to which the invention pertains to make and use the invention.”

“Skilled in the art or science” is a somewhat subjective legal standard. If the description of your invention is so secretive that it would take a person of extraordinary skill to reproduce or practice the invention, that would not be considered clear or concise. At the same time, the description does not have to be so step-by-step that a layman could reproduce the invention.

About.com also has an article called “Tips on Writing the Description.” It will prove very helpful when you sit down to tackle this crucial task.

SRC: http://inventors.about.com/od/patentsbasics/a/descriptions.htm

Above all, remember that your written description should be airtight: exact in every way, with every trace of vagueness cut out. When it comes to intellectual property, vagueness equals death.

The second part of the provisional patent application is drawings. This, obviously enough, is where you graphically represent what is going to be patented. However, there are some conventions that you should adhere to during this process. To follow them, consult these handy guides from About.com.
- Creating Patent Drawings For A Utility Patent
- Tips on Making Patent Drawings
- The Rules For Patent Drawings

Another article discusses the USPTO’s standards for drawings, which are exact. Rather than conventions, these are requirements that absolutely must be satisfied for your provisional patent application to even be taken seriously. Some of them include size, dimension, type of paper, and formatting. You can read about them all in a simple, easy-to-follow fashion here.

SRC: http://inventors.about.com/od/patentdrawings/a/drawings.htm

If all of this seems daunting, it really isn’t. Once you acquaint yourself with what’s required you will find that it is not all that difficult to comply with the USPTO’s requests on drawings.

Finally, your application must also include the filing fee and a cover report with the following things on it.

- the application as a provisional application for patent;
- the name(s) of all inventors
- inventor residence(s)
- title of the invention
- name and registration number of attorney or agent and docket number (if applicable)
- correspondence address
- any US Government agency that has a property interest in the application.

Make sure all these things are taken care of, and you will be well on your way to being the proud owner of a provisional patent! And remember that once your provisional patent is approved, the clock is ticking. You have 12 short months to drum up interest in your invention and see if it will fly. Take it to trade shows, demo it for customers, do all you can to see whether it is worth getting a full patent. If you are smart and diligent, a year is plenty of time to do this type of research. In fact, it’s why the provisional patent exists at all!

That is the unique benefit and advantage that a provisional patent offers you. Best of luck!

About the author of this article:

Eric Corl is the President of Idea Buyer llc, a marketplace for new technology and products that gives inventors the opportunity to showcase their intellectual property to consumer product companies, entrepreneurs, retailers, and manufacturers. you can email him at ericcorl@ideabuyer.com. you can visit the site by visiting this address; http://www.ideabuyer.com new technology and products, patents for sale.

While it’s usually preferable to have an attorney draft your licensing agreement, it’s not always necessary. Legal-minded inventors can certainly draft their own patent license agreements with appropriate study and preparation. This article is about books and articles you should read – and precautions you should take – should you choose to do this.

One excellent free article on the subject comes from IPWatchdog.com, and is entitled “Drafting a License Agreement.” Patent attorney Eugene Quinn begins the article by cautioning that while it is okay to draft your own agreement, you should probably have an attorney review it before you use it. The key, Quinn writes, is finding an attorney who will agree to review an agreement that he did not personally create:

“There are some attorneys who will, no doubt, not want to review your work, but there are a number of attorneys that routinely work with independent inventors and understand the need to keep costs down by offering review services, such as reviewing patent applications or reviewing licensing agreements.”

SRC: http://www.ipwatchdog.com/inventing/licensing-agreement/

The next thing Quinn encourages do-it-yourself license writers to do is forget about the “template” mentality. There is a myth among intellectual property laymen that there are “standard” contracts for patent licenses that everyone uses. According to Quinn, this is wrong, and attorneys actually roll their eyes when clients ask for standardized or “template” license agreements. While there are standard elements of every agreement, the exact manifestation of those elements is virtually never the same for any two patent licenses. So don’t approach the task by trying to emulate what you believe to be a standard form.

Instead, the far smarter thing to do is focus on the specific clauses – things like performance obligations and royalty requirements – that will go into your unique patent license. IdeaBuyer has a comprehensive article on precisely this subject called “Writing Good Performance Obligations Into Patent Licenses.” Consider that required reading for any do-it-yourself patent licensing.

That said, you do want to at least look over a few sample patent licenses to get an idea of the structural elements they all share. Sample patent licenses can be found in abundance on the Internet, such as this one:

SRC: http://contracts.onecle.com/occulogix/brunner.lic.2004.10.25.shtml

However, Quinn recommends using an encyclopedia of legal forms, such as this one, which he describes in detail in his article:

West has an encyclopedia set called West’s Legal Forms. In the Second Edition it is Volume 25 that relates to patents (I know this because I own that volume myself). There are a number of good sample licenses in the West book. If you find a library that has a good intellectual property section (which is becoming easier given the growth of this field of practice) there will be several smaller encyclopedias dedicated to patent licensing, such as Milgram on Licensing. In most libraries the form books will be in one location and the IP books in another location, so be sure to check both locations.

Many will read this and think “yeah, that’s all well and good but I can probably get the same information from a local bookstore with less fuss.” However, this is often not the case. Many bookstore books on intellectual property are what John T. Read calls “dictionaries not in alphabetical order”. That is, they simply define some basic terminology of the field without laying out a concise sequence of steps for achieving the goal, which, in your case, is writing a patent license on your own. For this reason, you should stick to encyclopedias such as the one referenced by Quinn.

If you cannot or will not use such an encyclopedia, sample forms from universities are the most reliable alternatives. In any event, once you have a sample form to work with, you should adopt a “buffet” mentality. Rather than copying the structure of the patent license verbatim, simply take clauses that seem to match what you are hoping to convey in your agreement.

Using the sample patent license referenced earlier, let’s say you wanted to use this clause in your own license agreement.

Advance Royalty Payments. Licensee agrees to pay Brunner Fifty Thousand

Dollars ($50,000 USD) annually as an advance and credited against any and all Royalty Payments paid in accordance with this Agreement. Such Advance

Royalty Payments shall be non-refundable and be paid to Brunner and in

equal payments of Twelve Thousand Five-hundred Dollars ($12,500 USD), made

quarterly, on or before the expiration of Forty-five (45) days after the

reporting close of each prior calendar quarter.

According to Quinn, royalty requirements are one of the things do-it-yourself patent license writers should focus on most. So in the case of this clause, you would simply modify it to suit your needs. If your quarterly royalty payments are $50,000, you would just erase the $12,500 currently in that clause and replace it with $50,000. Repeat this process of taking clauses from other agreements and modifying them until you have a complete agreement that covers everything you want it to.

At this point, you are ready to show your agreement to an attorney and have him iron out any of the kinks that might be left. Good luck!

Eric Corl is the President of Idea Buyer LLC, a new product development company that owns and operates IdeaBuyer.com- The Online Marketplace for Intellectual Property. The site gives inventors the opportunity to showcase their intellectual property to consumer product companies, entrepreneurs, retailers, and manufacturers. You can email him at EricCorl@IdeaBuyer.com.

Once you have created your invention, the next thought is obviously “How can I capitalize on it?” One time-tested way of doing this is licensing your invention to a retailer who will bring it to paying customers. Retailers can be anyone with the ability to reach your market, whether it’s Wal-Mart, Target, Home Depot, or even an Internet website. The idea is that you will be cutting them in on the profits from the sales they make possible. However, there are a few things you should know about this approach before you dive into it. In this article, we will touch upon the most important considerations.

The first think to keep in mind is the notion of “inventory available.” Generally, successful retailers will want to know that you can supply them with enough inventory to handle a large volume of sales. This is simply part of the planning process that retailers engage in, especially catalogs. Therefore, you should have some type of strategy for addressing this before you go trying to license your invention to a retailer. Do you have the facilities and equipment to mass-produce your invention? Do you need to hire staff? If you are not sure what your capabilities are, ask the retailer in question what their inventory available requirements are. This will give you an indication of what you will need to do to produce enough inventory.

Another term you should get familiar with is the purchase order. About.com defines a purchase order as such:

“A written sales contract between buyer and seller detailing the exact merchandise or services to be rendered from a single vendor. It will specify payment terms, delivery dates, item identification, quantities, shipping terms and all other obligations and conditions.

Purchase orders are generally preprinted, numbered documents generated by the retailer’s financial management system which shows that purchase details have been recorded and payment will be made.”

The basic idea is that the retailer you license your invention to will be sending you purchase orders which say how much product they are buying from you at that time. It will be crucial for you to store and file these records in an efficient way, as they will over time contain almost all of your financial history with that retailer.

Another all too important aspect of licensing an invention to a retailer is the terms of payment. There are four main terms that are common today: net 30, net 60, net 90, and net 120. However, many retailers are known for using other, more creative terms of payment. Wikipedia offers some helpful hints that will help you clear up the confusion.

“Net 30 is a trade credit which specifies payment is expected to be received in full 30 days after the goods are delivered. Net 30 terms are often coupled with a credit for early payment; e.g. the notation “2% 10, net 30″ indicates that a 2% discount is provided if payment is received within 10 days of the delivery of goods, and that full payment is expected within 30 days.

For example, if “$1000 2/10 net 30″ is written on a bill, the buyer can take a 2% discount ($1000 x .02 = $20) and make a payment of $980 within 10 days, …

If credit terms of “2/10, net 30″ are offered, the approximate cost of not taking the discount and paying at the end of the credit period would be as follow:

[2/(100-2)]*[365/(30-10)]=0.3724 in percentage = 37.24%”

Obviously, you as the licensor will want to secure the timeliest payment terms possible; most likely, this means Net 30. However, you should be warned that not every retailer will go along with this. The bigger the retailer is, the more clout they have in compelling you to accept their terms. One way around this is to start by licensing your invention to smaller retailers, building a successful track record that you can use as leverage when it comes time to negotiate payment terms with larger retailers. Either way, you want to try and negotiate as hard as possible for payment terms that benefit you.

Another way to license your invention to a retailer is to go through what are known as “reps.” Although reps are somewhat less commonly used today than in the past, they still have a large role to play. Reps are people who are on good terms with the buyers at various retailers and who convince those buyers to stock certain products. If the buyer’s store does stock those products, the rep gets a kickback from the product manufacturer for getting them into the store. While you might balk at the idea of paying someone to get you in the door, it may be worth investigating. Sometimes all it takes is an introduction to get the deal done.

Keep these tips in mind and you should find that licensing your invention to a retailer makes more sense than it did before.

Eric Corl is the President of Idea Buyer LLC, a new product development company that owns and operates IdeaBuyer.com- The Online Marketplace for Intellectual Property. The site gives inventors the opportunity to showcase their intellectual property to consumer product companies, entrepreneurs, retailers, and manufacturers. You can email him at EricCorl@IdeaBuyer.com.

If you do not want to go through all the time and hassle of bringing an idea to market yourself, there is an alternative: license your idea to a manufacturer. In doing this, you are granting someone else the right to create your idea and bring it to buyers via the marketplace. However, there are some important steps and considerations that you should keep in mind if you choose to do this. In this article, we will make you aware of them.

First, a few words about what it means to license an idea. Licensing an idea actually means licensing a patent, which protects your idea. If your idea is not patented already, you will want to apply for one. Luckily, there is a quicker way to do this than you probably think. That way is known as the “provisional patent.” It is when you file an application with the USPTO and get full patent rights for 12 months. During those 12 months, smart inventors will try to license their idea, sell it, or in some way see what the interest is. After those 12 months you will be required to forfeit patent rights or apply for a full patent. However, we will assume that you do have a patent or will have one soon. So what about licensing it?

Legally speaking, you have licensed your patent when you (the licensor) grant exploitation rights over your patent to a licensee (the person you are licensing it to.) In this case, the licensee is whichever manufacturer you have licensed your patent to. “Exploitation rights” simply means the right to create, market, and/or sell something based on what that patent protects. A patent license is also a legal contract, and that contract is what will spell out terms precisely which exploitation rights are being granted. These include any performance obligations the licensor might demand of the licensee. This means that if any performance obligations are included in the contract (ie, “You must produce X number of sales by the year X.”), and they are not met, this could lead to the license being terminated in its entirety.

If this sounds complicated, it can be, but it is actually quite simple. The biggest consideration is finding the right manufacturer to license your patent to. To do this, you should check resources like the Thomas Register to find manufacturers related to your idea. These are the people most likely to want to license it from you. There are other easy ways of finding manufacturers to license your idea to, as well. See our article “Researching Your Market Online” for more details. Once you have narrowed down a list of 10-20 relevant manufacturers, the next step is deciding on the terms of your license agreement.

As mentioned earlier, most license agreements include one or more performance obligations. These are simply requirements that the manufacturer (licensee) must fulfill in order to keep the license. If you have certain expectations that you want to enforce, such as X number of sales in the second year or a 4% profit margin, performance obligations is the way to enforce them. Of course, both parties will have to agree on the obligations before they become final. There is also the issue of royalty requirements, where you can specify that you must receive X dollars in royalties monthly, annually, or semi-annually to keep the license agreement alive. These are ways of ensuring that your own financial needs are met from licensing your idea to the manufacturer.

Making sure those needs are met is probably the biggest consideration of all. How much are you going to ask for in royalties? You cannot get greedy, but you must ensure that your costs are paid back and the money you get is worth your while. Tally up the money you have spent so far and keep the total in mind when setting royalty requirements.

Another consideration is the term of the agreement. Do you want a longer or shorter agreement? Well, that depends on your circumstances. Do you want to someday capitalize on this patent yourself? If so, you might opt for an agreement of 5 years or less. However, if you’re the kind of person who just wants to collect the royalty checks and move on to something else, a longer agreement might suit you best. The key is to choose the length consciously, based on your true needs and goals.

Of course, you should also use a patent attorney for the duration of this process. Licensing a patent is not something you should “wing it” with, as there are complex laws involved and severe penalties for breaking them. Additionally, a good patent attorney can also warn you if you are about to license your idea in a way that harms you. What if the manufacturer tries to get away with paying you a pathetically small sum in royalties? Situations like these are when it pays to have an attorney on your side, so don’t feel shy about spending the money to get one.

If you can keep these considerations in mind and the timing is right for your product in the market place, you will have a much better probability of profitably licensing your idea to a manufacturer.

Eric Corl is the President of Idea Buyer LLC, a new product development company that owns and operates IdeaBuyer.com- The Online Marketplace for Intellectual Property. The site gives inventors the opportunity to showcase their intellectual property to consumer product companies, entrepreneurs, retailers, and manufacturers. You can email him at EricCorl@IdeaBuyer.com.

With the energy crisis and the worldwide push to “go green”, innovation in the automotive sector is at an all time high. This puts automotive patent holders in a prime position to sell or license their patent. However, it would behoove you to do some research on how automotive patents are typically capitalized on, as well as who would be most likely to buy or license said patents.

Most of the action in the automotive industry takes place in Michigan, specifically Detroit, or “Motown.” A recent article called “Auto Industry Fueling Growth in Michigan’s Patent Applications” describes the recent surge in auto innovation there:

“The auto industry may be bleeding money throughout Michigan, but it is fueling a rise in innovation in the state, federal data on patent activity shows.

The state saw a 20 percent rise in the numbers of patents granted between 2000 and 2006, the years for which the most recent data is available, compared with the seven-year 1993-1999 period, according to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.”

SRC: http://www.mlive.com/business/index.ssf/2008/03/auto_industry_fueling_growth_i.html

 However, a number of auto leaders do business internationally as well. Wikipedia offers a handy chart that breaks down, by volume, the largest auto makers and their divisions and subsidiary companies. The table is based on the most recent OICA data.

SRC: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automotive_industry#World.27s_largest_vehicle_manufacturing_groups_.28by_volume.29

General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler are the largest players in the United States market, in that order. Under the GM flag are brands like Buick, Cadillac, Hummer, Pontiac, Saturn, and Saab. Ford encompasses Lincoln, Mercury, and Volvo, while Chrysler markets the Dodge and Jeep line of trucks and SUVs. The divisions of each auto maker should inform your decision on who to contact about selling your patent.

If your patent pertains to low-mid range sedans or gigantic SUVs, you might look to score a meeting with someone from GM. If your patent applies to luxury models like the Lincoln Towncar, a call to Ford might be best. And if your invention would be best utilized in a heavy-lifting work vehicle like a Dodge Ram or Jeep Cherokee, Chrysler is probably the ideal networking target. Of course, there are several other auto makers worth considering who operate outside of the U.S., but it often helps to start closer to home.

 It is also worth noting that many automakers own stock in and have business partnerships with other automakers. This means that even if you fail to sell or license your patent to one automaker, they might be able to put you in touch with one that would be more amenable to your proposal. Here is a quick reference of ownership overlap within the automotive industry.

• Porsche holds a 20% stake in the Volkswagen Group (30.97% voting rights), as of 2006-12-31.
• The Renault-Nissan alliance involves two global companies linked by cross-shareholding, with Renault holding 44.3% of Nissan shares, and Nissan holding 15% of Renault shares.
• Ford holds an 33.9% stake in Mazda. and an 8.3% share in Aston Martin.
• Hyundai Motor Co. holds a 38.67% stake in Kia Motors.
• Daimler AG holds an 19.9% stake in Chrysler Holding LLC.
• General Motors still holds a 3% stake in Suzuki. Suzuki is also partner with GM in GMDAT and CAMI.
• Toyota holds 51% stake Daihatsu hence having a controlling interest in the company.

However, not every automotive patent holder should necessarily target auto makers. Instead, some patents are probably more attractive to auto dealers, of which there are tens of thousands across the United States. If you are unsure of which auto dealer to contact or how to get in touch with them, the National Automobile Dealer Association is a good place to start. They are an automotive industry trade group that represents some 20,000 dealerships across the U.S. and boasts some 43,000 worldwide franchises. They also develop comprehensive research data on the auto industry, which might be of use to you in putting your pitch together.

You can contact the NADA by phone, e-mail, or snail mail.

National Automobile Dealers Association
8400 Westpark Drive
McLean, Virginia 22102
(703) 821-7000 or (800) 252-6232
nadainfo@nada.org

Of course, you will want to consult a patent attorney before diving headlong into negotiations. Furthermore, this attorney should be one with experience and success in the auto sector. One proven winner in this field is Quinn Law Group, PLLC. “Auto Industry Fueling Growth…” discusses the track record and auto industry connections Quinn has at its disposal:

Principal Christopher Quinn said patent applications in areas such as hybrid technology, vehicle safety and electronics are helping drive annual revenue increases of 20 percent or more. The 19-member firm works with customers including General Motors Corp. and suppliers, as well as with out-of-state companies, many with Michigan offices, whose patents wouldn’t necessarily show up in USPTO data, he said.

 Quinn can be contacted at the following web URL:

http://www.quinnlawgroup.com/contact.htm

All in all, your quest to sell or license an auto patent should begin with a careful matching of your patent to the right auto maker, and end with the assistance of a proven attorney in the field.

 Eric Corl is the President of Idea Buyer LLC, a new product development company that owns and operates IdeaBuyer.com- The Online Marketplace for Intellectual Property.  The site gives inventors the opportunity to showcase their intellectual property to consumer product companies, entrepreneurs, retailers, and manufacturers. You can email him at EricCorl@IdeaBuyer.com.