Featured Products

This is a simple product that puts a twist on self tanning and is poised for multi-million dollar international sales. You will likely see it being used and on store shelves at CVS and Walgreens soon.

You have seen it on TV. You may have even purchased one. This inventor solved a common problem that almost every pet owner has dealt with. A creative solution in a quickly growing market has turned into a multi-million dollar production with growing international sales. Please contact us directly with any pet products.

The original patented snoring prevention system that you may have bought to keep your spouse from waking you up. If you’re still having restless nights - check it out. The inventor will be thankful. If you are an inventor with a sleep aid product please contact us.

The steam buddy is a quick way to have your clothes looking sharp. It is a handheld solution to a common problem. This is a perfect example of a convenience product with marketability to a large group of consumers.

Most green thumbs out there are familiar with this product. The at home garden market is a large and growing market. If you are an inventor with a garden product that can be manufactured cheaply please contact us directly.

In the quest to bring your invention to market, your ability to talk to decision makers will have a huge impact on your success or failure. Many inventors have trouble knowing how to identify decision makers and have an even harder time carrying on a worthwhile and intriguing conversation with them if they do get in touch. To help you out, I have created a simple guide on how to talk to anyone.

The guide is setup in three parts;
1. How to identify decision makers
2. How to engage them in conversation
3. How to get commitments

I. How to Identify Decision Makers

A. Research (Website, publications)

B. Manta.com, Linkedin.com

II. How to Engage Them

A. Create a compelling argument

B. Credibility

C. Appeal to their self interest

III. How to Get Commitments

A. Discuss win-win situations

B. Persistent follow-up without ‘nagging’

C. Positive Reinforcement

Identifying decision makers can be a daunting task for some. Many people tend to shoot lower than they should and thus miss the very people who can get things done on their behalf. On the contrary, it is key not to aim too high and be labeled a pest. When it comes down to it, this step is all about research. You need to read through the company’s website, their news publications, and the “about us” section. If you can find specific staff positions, analyze which individuals should theoretically be the decision makers for helping you achieve your goal. For example, who determines which products get a formal review? It probably isn’t the Chief Financial Officer.

Your research can be aided by extremely useful sites like Manta.com and Linkedin.com. If you are not a member on LinkedIn.com, you should be. There is absolutely no excuse to not being – you can keep your profile private and it is free. Once you setup your account, try advanced search and look for individuals who work for certain companies in particular positions.

How to Engage Them
When you contact people, offer a compelling argument of why it is beneficial for you to talk. Why should they respond to your message? Your first priority is to prove credible to the contact. In a world where emails are sent like telemarketer calls were in the 90s, you need to separate yourself from the herd.

There are several things you can do to gain credibility. Here are a few of them.

1. Similar Contacts:
   If you know similar people, this is a big leg up as it is a validation of who you say you are if the contact is reliable. If possible, have them make an introduction even if it is an acquaintance.
2. Offer Personal Credibility:
   Have you had prior professional successes that you can point to via an online resume? Do you have references you can provide?
3. Offer Product Credibility:
   Has your product been tested? Has your product been featured in a magazine?

   After gaining credibility, appeal to their self interest. Do not ask for favors. Few people walk through the business world with a Red Cross badge on their arm and for good reason. This is a capitalist economy, not a socialist one. You are looking for what benefits you and should not expect others to just do favors for you. Talk to them about the potential this holds for them as an individual or to the company they work for. Do not be cheesy about it – offer sincere opportunities for win-win situations.

How to Get Commitments
After creating a compelling argument as to why they should talk to you, you should be able to get a commitment for a review of information you send, an introduction to someone else in the company who can help you, or a follow up call.

If you fail to get a response within a week, follow up with a phone call to the office and ask for the person by their first name. If they ask who is calling state your real name and your company name. If they ask what you are calling about, state that you are following up regarding your product evaluation.

Once you get them on the phone, with a smile on your face, introduce yourself and see if you can engage them over the phone regarding your product. Be empathetic to their situation – you most likely do not like getting random calls. Few people do. Be gentle, be compelling, appeal to their self interest. Be an interesting person to talk to.

Whenever someone tells you they will do something make sure you put a date on it. For example if someone tells you, “I will review it and get back to you”, respond with a, “Great. I’m going to be very busy through Thursday of next week with Meetings but I could talk Friday. Would 10 am work for you?” Adjust according to their response but get a time that they have approved you can call them back.

I hope this article has been of value to you. Feel free to email me if you have questions or need a little advice in your pursuit to sell or license your IP.

When you work with us, you get my personal cell phone number. We care about your success.

Eric Corl is the President of Idea Buyer LLC, a new product development company that owns and operates IdeaBuyer.com. You can email him at EricCorl@IdeaBuyer.com.

How to Value Your Patent

One of the most important tasks you will carry out as a patent holder is assigning a monetary value for it. This could become necessary for any number of reasons, such as:

• Selling the patent
• Licensing the patent
• Deciding how much equity to give to business partners investing or working with the patent

None of these decisions can be wisely made without first knowing, at least roughly, what your patent is worth. It is not always an easy task, as patent valuation is a somewhat inexact science. However, whether you have a provisional patent, a design patent, a utility patent, or a plant patent, some key principles should be observed.

You should value your patent with an eye toward the size of the market it could serve. If you own the patent to a new kind of baseball bat, you would want to determine the size of the baseball gear market. Consider this the starting point, for without knowing how much money is spent on similar existing products, you have no valid basis for assigning a worth to your own. After all, wouldn’t you agree that whether your market sees $1 million or $50 million in yearly sales, there would be an impact on how much your patent is worth?

One of the benefits of working with a patent attorney is that he or she will have access to comparables, or how much similar patents have been valued at or sold for. It could be that a new baseball bat was patented 10 years ago and valued at $500,000. Now, this does not necessarily mean that your patent is worth exactly that. Market forces change all the time, and the further back that similar patent was valued, the less it should influence that value you assign to yours. (Conversely, the more recently a similar patent was valued, the more that valuation should be heeded.)

Nevertheless, it pays to get a read on how similar patents are being valued rather than arbitrarily plucking an attractive number out of the air and assigning that as your patent’s value.

One major factor that needs to be considered when valuing anything is risk. In this context, a major risk is that someone who buys or licenses your patent will find that it does not hold up in court – that is, that the courts might decide the patent is invalid. How could this happen, you might ask? The website JournalOfAccountancy.com offers 2 possible scenarios:

“If it is discovered after a patent has been issued that the inventors didn’t meet the statutory requirements for obtaining it–for example, if they weren’t the inventors (35 USC section 102(f)), or had published information about the invention or offered it for sale more than one year before the date of application (35 USC section 102(b))–the patent is invalid and substantially worthless.”

Obviously, this is not desirable and any perceived risk of it happening will reduce what someone is willing to pay for your patent. The solution? Consult your patent attorney on ways to investigate the validity of your patent and convey this to prospective buyers. The more you can eliminate the perception of risk, the higher a value you can assign to your patent.

Part 3 of our “Patent Facts and Fiction” series says that a patent does not give you exclusive rights to make your invention, only to prevent others from doing so. But what if making your invention would infringe on someone else’s patent? This type of patent overlap is quite common and could lead to your patent being invalidated by the courts. Work with your patent attorney to investigate if any overlap exists and communicate to prospective buyers or licensees that this will not be an issue. Eliminating this risk will allow you to value your patent higher than if it was left unaddressed.

No matter what you value your patent at, anyone thinking of buying or licensing it will investigate their alternatives. They will look for the “next best thing” and try to figure out if that would be cheaper than your patent. Since they are going to do this anyway, you had might as well figure out in advance and incorporate it into your valuation. Doing so offers you a strategic advantage – namely that if the next best thing is expensive (or there is no next best thing) you can use this as justification for charging more. Of course, if the next best thing is inexpensive or close to what you are asking, this could suggest a need to lower your valuation.

You cannot value your patent in a vacuum, looking for the one, true, “right” value. Rather, you should assign a value by keeping your unique needs in mind. Why are you selling the patent? If you are just looking to cash out fast without a lot of meetings, delays, and deliberations, it might make sense to use a lower valuation. Money today is worth more than money tomorrow, and holding out for a trivially or even substantially higher price may not actually be worth it. Or, maybe it is – the point is that you need to make this decision consciously and not out of egotism or greed.

Keeping these 6 tips in mind will not instantly generate the “right” patent value for you, but it will ensure that whatever value you decide upon is far more realistic and valid than it would have otherwise been.