While the swift cut-and-parry of creation is the heart of an inventor’s life, there is another important component – networking. Let’s face it; no matter how great your invention may be, you can always benefit from talented professionals in your field that might be willing to lend a hand. Maybe it’s that database programmer you’ve been scouring the earth for, or that distributor you need to get your product on store shelves, or a patent attorney to make sure your intellectual property is protected. Whatever the case may be, there are steps you can take to put yourself in the path of networking success. In this article, we will examine five of the most helpful. By applying these tips to your day-to-day efforts, you will increase your odds of meeting the people you need to move your invention forward.

1) Have a clean, approachable website.

The benefit of having a simple website to send people to cannot be stressed enough. Let’s say you are at a party or industry conference. Suddenly, you meet a new colleague and the two of you get to talking about your respective projects and goals. As the conversation comes to a close, the colleague asks you, “So, how can I stay abreast of what you’re up to, how can we keep in touch?” If you are networking-savvy inventor, you will reply, “Oh, no problem! My website is www.JohnDokes.com, it has all my contact information and what I’m working on. Check up on me there from time to time!”

This is extremely simple to do. Your website does not have to be flashy or fancy; a clean, black text on white background HTML layout will do just fine. As mentioned, your website should include your name, profession, hobbies, and areas of expertise, achievements, and maybe a periodical blurb about what things of importance you are working on at the time.

2) Print business cards and carry them at all times.

But what happens when you meet someone on the fly? There isn’t always time to scribble down web URLs or phone numbers, and lack of preparedness could kill an otherwise great networking contact. Fortunately, this does not have to befall you. The solution is a timeless standby of professionals everywhere: business cards! Simply visit your local Kinkos and print up 200 standard business cards with your name, e-mail address, mobile phone, and anything else you deem relevant. Then, make a point of carrying 5-10 of them in your wallet with you at all times. With business cards in tow, you will be able to capitalize on networking opportunities wherever you happen to be – on vacation, at restaurants or coffee shops, even in the grocery store. You truly never know when you will meet someone important.

3) Consider a separate phone line or wireless phone for professional purposes.

While not an absolute necessity, you need to consider how a potential contact or partner might perceive you. If they call your house line and hear lots of family commotion in the background, it might send the message that you are ill-prepared to take on a serious venture of any kind. Whether this is reasonable to infer or not, perception is reality for many people. Therefore, it might make sense to get a separate landline or wireless phone for your professional needs. You would then print this number on your website and business cards instead of your house phone. A wireless phone is best because you can carry it with you and never miss an important call. In addition to upholding your professionalism, doing this also helps you delineate between different areas of your life.

4) Follow leads wherever they may appear.

Anyone who has been in business for long knows that leads and opportunities can crop up almost anywhere, at any time. It is not uncommon for new business partners to meet on vacation, over dinner and drinks, or while playing golf at a country club. Therefore, you should keep this in the back of your mind and be ready to pounce on new opportunities as they arise. If you are out on the green with someone and you get to talking about your professions, there is no shame in “testing the waters” and seeing if he is interested in new projects. Do not assume that just because you aren’t in a business setting, you cannot pursue business leads. Truly successful inventors are creative and resourceful.

5) Use the direct approach whenever possible and appropriate.

Many people take a passive approach to life. Instead of acting to bring about some outcome, they simply hope it comes to be through osmosis. When it comes to networking, this attitude is a death sentence. If you want to meet the best people and bring them into the fold, you need to proactively seek them out. Let’s say you are in desperate need of a graphic designer, for instance. Throw up an ad on Rent-A-Coder that says you’re looking for one! Better yet, ask around your circle of friends and contacts to see if they know anyone with the skills you need. This is how networking happens. Of course, you should seek to establish some kind of relationship with a person before you just mine them for contacts. You wouldn’t want to bombard someone you just met. But by all means: once you are on good terms with someone, feel free to ask them who they know.

Apply these tips to your inventing and you will soon find that networking is not so difficult and it can make the difference between a successful invention and a failed one.

Eric Corl is the Founder and CEO of IdeaBuyer.com, the online marketplace for intellectual property 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.

When it comes to product marketing, everyone thinks they are an expert, but few can produce results. Why is this so? Most of the problem comes from marketing books, seminars, and courses that detract from the heart of marketing: translating features into benefits. Much of today’s marketing is based on product hype . However, the simple truth of the matter is that people buy things to gain pleasure or avoid some sort of pain. It is critical to understand this as it is the supporting motivation for every purchase no matter how little or large it may be. Think about the last two items you purchased. Why did you buy them? You can boil every purchase down to gaining pleasure or avoiding pain.

That being said, there are four key tips to better connect with your customers:

1) Use terms your customer can relate to, not industry jargon.

This point is illustrated eloquently by Jay Cross of the popular online marketing blog PronetAdvertising.com. In his article “Speak Your Customer’s Language”, he stresses that marketers often become so entrenched in their fields that they believe everyone else knows as much as they do.

“As businesspeople we develop tunnel vision regarding our products. The better parts of our days are spent actively working in our fields. We are more experienced and well-read than most ever care to theorize about. This leads us to use super-specialized language that doesn’t always click with customers. I was as guilty of this as anyone. When I did anti-spyware I was guilty of calling my product a “data-driven Internet security solution” or “gateway threat prevention.” And while these terms do apply in a certain context of knowledge (say, a rival CEO’s), they are outside of the realm of a typical customer’s knowledge base. Now that I’m out of that market I can see it with fresh eyes, including the much simpler terms the common man describes it with.”

The solution to this problem is to discuss your products with people outside your company and outside your market. This is the only true way to learn the outsider’s perspective. Once you get an idea of what this is, you can apply it to the packaging and marketing of whatever product you have to offer.

2) Focus on benefits, not features.

This is one of the most oft-made mistakes in all of marketing. To an extent, this is understandable. When you have spent months or years toiling to create a new product, you are naturally excited about all the little things that make it tick and want to describe them to your customers. The problem, as with the last tip, is that the customers do not share this context of knowledge or enthusiasm. So what is the difference, precisely, between features and benefits?

A feature is what something IS. For example, a 50 number speed dial, or a 6 CD changer.

A benefit is why someone CARES. For example, fewer keystrokes and less hassle changing CDs.

Sadly, Entrepreneur.com notes that “not one in ten companies understands the difference” between features and benefits when it comes to preparing marketing campaigns or materials. For this reason, many well-intentioned marketers stress features over benefits and the bottom line suffers as a result. If you want put your marketing efforts into hyper drive, go over everything you put out with a fine-toothed comb and make sure benefits are top, front, and center. You will be amazed at how much of a difference this makes.

3) Write at a fifth-grade level. Really.

This might sound like we are demeaning your customers, but rest assured that this is not the case. It is simply a fact that most buyers respond better to simple language than complex language. In his book “Meaningful Marketing”, Eureka! Ranch founder Doug Hall notes a study proving this to be so. “Whether it’s the lack of reading done by most adults after high school, the immense information overload people experience, or a little of both, consumers simply shut down when confronted with lengthy tomes. The solution? Read your marketing material to a child in late elementary or middle school. Do they understand your product? If not, what did you need to tell them before they did? Incorporate what you learn into your marketing and you will be astounded at the results.”

4) Know whether your customers are right-brained or left-brained

Most of us are familiar with the idea of diving people into categories of right-brained or left-brained. Right-brained people are supposedly more emotional and impulsive while left-brained people are apparently more logical and deliberate in their decisions. In most cases your customer base will be a mixture of both, but one group tends to outweigh the other. You should make it a point of determining whether most of your customers are right-brained or left, as this can significantly amplify your marketing efforts. For example, left-brained customers will expect fliers and copy with lots of facts, product comparisons, and a clear demonstration of value for the money spent. While this is important to right-brainers too, you are more likely to win their business with enthusiasm and energy.

Running a product marketing campaign with these items in mind will help increase conversion rates on most marketing.

Eric Corl is the Founder and CEO of IdeaBuyer.com, 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 clicking here > New Technology and Products, Patents for Sale.

Developing a product is when the rubber meets the road, when theory meets practice, when ideas become real. While it would be impossible for any one article to give a blow-by-blow list of specific steps for making every kind of product imaginable, there are some definite principles that can and should be followed. Doing so ensures that your product development efforts result in something far more likely to succeed on the open marketplace.

With that being said, let’s dive in!

Do not get overly attached to your original conception.

Some inventors make the mistake of worshiping their original idea for what the product will look like when it is done. Many do this because they are afraid of becoming like entrepreneurs on the other extreme of the product development spectrum: those who never make any progress because they keep junking the product and starting from scratch. In fact, both of these approaches are wrong. The key to successful product development is to hold true to your idea without being so rigid that you refuse to make rational changes.

For example, let us say you are developing a new kind of water filtration system that is going to put the existing models to shame with its never-before-seen, super-accurate and top-secret filtration technology. In conceiving this new filter, you have decided to make it as an add-on to the sink faucet. That is, it will attach to the faucet and automatically filter water when someone turns it on. But let’s say you come across a questionnaire or focus group. It says that faucet filter sales have been in decline for two years. However, it shows consumers are quire enthusiastic about pitchers that will filter the water they pour into it.

If you are a smart product developer, you will strongly consider adapting your incredible new technology to this method. Refusing to acknowledge this trend and make anything other than what you originally thought of is the kind of stubbornness that kills otherwise great products. Do not let that become your story!

Set realistic deadlines for yourself and adhere to them.

Without deadlines, product development can devolve into endless “do-overs” and “back to the drawing board” sessions that become little more than a sinkhole of wasted time. Of course, a certain amount of mistake and retries are to be expected when developing a product. Trying to eliminate all of them would be impossible. Instead, the goal is to set reasonable deadlines for yourself.

If you are vexed by a particular problem, give yourself a set amount of time to solve it before moving on to the next issue. If you cannot resolve the problem in that amount of time, make a judgment call. Will a few more days suffice? Or is this something you should put on the back burner while you satisfy other pressing demands of developing the product? Prioritizing is key, and learning to do so will be an incalculable benefit to you. It will give your progress a sense of physical reality and keep you anchored to a plan.

Of course, your ultimate deadline should be one for completion: when do you hope to have the product developed by? Impose a deadline on yourself even if there isn’t one. The sooner your product is developed, the faster you can get it to market and begin reaping the fruits of your labor.

Get feedback from those outside your family and friends.

As you develop the product, show it to people at various stages. Collect feedback from them on what they like, what they do not like, and what they would like to see instead. Many inventors forgo this valuable feedback loop because they fear that sense of rejection. No one likes to hear that what they have worked on for months might not be so great after all.

So rather than seek the cleansing of truth, many inventors simply hypothesize to themselves about what people would think about the product. This is completely insufficient. Instead, your goal should be exposing your product to as much critical scrutiny as possible. This means to look outside your family and friends. While they are often concerned first and foremost with not hurting your feelings, outsiders will often be quite blunt about what you should do differently. Far from being a bad thing, this is actually invaluable.

If you show your product at various stages to say 20 people, and 14 of them make the same suggestion that you never thought of, that is an enormous help. You can be reasonably sure that this suggestion is something the people in your market would want as well.

To develop a product, you need to walk the tightrope of maintaining your vision while also respecting reality. By keeping an active mind, you will only strengthen your product and increase its chances for success.

Eric Corl is the Founder and CEO of IdeaBuyer.com, 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.

One big concern on inventors’ minds is the rampant spread of Chinese intellectual property developments. It seems that no matter where you turn, opportunistic Chinese companies are flat-out stealing intellectual property from American companies, be it in the form of designs, processes, algorithms, or even entire products! Clearly, the rising tide of violations from this part of the world is worthy of some further study.

One prime example of Chinese intellectual property theft is a device called the miniOne. To the naked eye, the miniOne looks identical to the popular new iPhone from Apple, right down to the smoothe buttonless interface. However, the miniOne offers some things the iPhone does not. It runs popular mobile software that the iPhone wont support, in addition to being compatible with every worldwide wireless provider and not just AT&T. As if that were not enough, the miniOne promises to cost half as much as the iPhone and be available to 10 times as many customers.

Now, the troubling aspect of all this is not the additional capabilities this Chinese company is seeking to add. On the contrary, these are all welcome additions to the sphere of wireless technology. The problematic element is simply the wholesale theft of the iPhone’s design and aesthetic properties, the “grifting” of its style, and applying it to a separate product as though it were their own.

But the intellectual property violations do not stop at iPhone clones. Vehicles are another prime target for cloning and cheap resale by Chinese entrepreneurs. Take the Laibao, for example. It’s a small SUV that would pass to any casual observer for a Honda CR-V. Indeed, many in the automotive industry speculate that the engineers at Laibao simply copied the CR-V, virtually part for part, in creating their own car. Or take the Geely Meerie, a carbon copy of a Mercedes C-Class. All the style and sophistication of Mercedes for a fraction of the price: 120,000 yuan, or $15,000 US dollars to be exact.

However, the problem of cloned vehicles is made most clear by the “sweet spot” of the Chinese market; vehicles that sell for around $5,000, which is just a bit shy of the typical middle class Chinese family’s income. When it comes to this segment of the market, the Chery QQ is top, front, and center.

The QQ is a part-for-part clone of a car known either as the Daewoo Matiz or the Chevy Spark. (The actual car is a joint venture between General Motors and the Korean company Daewoo.) In fact, Sparks are sold worldwide. In the United States, an upgraded $10,500 version called the Aveo is cheaper than any other car available. This helps explain the astonishment of American officials when the rock-bottom priced $5,000 QQ first surfaced on the marketplace in 2003. The shock and awe of Congressman James Sensenbrenner (Wisconsin) after a 2004 jaunt to China sums it up:

“If you didn’t have name tags on the cars, you couldn’t tell them apart. It’s such a good knockoff that you can pull the door off the Spark and it fits on the QQ, so close that the doors match right up.”

Clearly, the complete and shameless cloning of other companies’ products for cheap resale is an alarming problem in the IP community. To understand all the developments that led up to the present state, it helps to analyze the history of IP theft in China. In fact, the problem evolved through several distinct stages on its path to today’s frightening condition.

Chinese industry did not become capable of piece-by-piece cloning overnight. Far from it. A report from consulting firm A.T. Kearney segments the growth of China’s clowning prowess into five separate periods. The first period was the 1980’s, marked by primitive, fragmented efforts to produce cheap textile knockoffs like t-shirts. Few were alarmed at this point because the violations in question were trivial. The second period ocured during the 1990’s. Clothing and accessories were the primary focus of this period as well, but with a twist: high-quality merchandise fakes from Reebok and Nike began to flood the market and gain acceptance by budget-minded westerners. By the mid-90’s, Chinese copycats had moved from simple trademark infringement to low-end tech wares: things like Duracell batteries and DVDs.

From this springboard, says the study, an era of “advanced technology piracy” was launched. Difficult-to-detect knockoffs of Callaway golf clubs, counterfeit auto safety class, and other products appeared beginning in 1998. And by the new millennium, Chinese piracy had become so adept at cloning that they successfully duplicated Intel computer chips, Viagra sex tablets and Bosch power tools.

One practical way that Chinese cloners go about their actions is using “ghost shifts.” That is, a factory contracted out to make authentic goods moves to a 24 hour operation, during which it pumps out copies. Some may be made with inferior materials, others are made properly, but all are destined for sale on the black market: from midnight until morning. The only problem with ghost shifts was that they could not run full time. To solve this problem, developers began in the mid 90’s to build shadow factories – entire plants identical in composition and function to the original, often created from the very same blueprints that actual manufacturers used to launch. Using these and other tactics, the Chinese are literally siphoning American brainpower and innovation into their own pockets by way of making cheap knockoffs.

Clearly, this is a serious problem that anyone involved in intellectual property would do well to be mindful of. Chinese IP violations could create a whole host of adverse incentives for inventors if the problem is not addressed.

Luckily, there are still reliable Chinese Manufacturer representatives out there that can help inventors and companies take advantage of the pricing benefits that Chinese manufacturing can offer. However, be sure to conduct due dilligence to protect yourself from predatory manufacturers. Request references from their current clients and ensure that all of your proper documentation is in place. Ideally, try to find an American manufacturing representative (US Citizenship) that is on site in China. This typically reduces much of the friction in doing business overseas.

Eric Corl is the Founder and CEO of IdeaBuyer.com, 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 clicking here > Patents for Sale.

Hollywood and popular literature tend to glorify the selfless inventor who innovates out of benevolence for mankind, with no care for personal gain. However, without the ability to commercialize new ideas, many of the world’s most cherished inventions might not have come to pass. Silicon Valley venture capitalist Paul Graham concurs in his essay “How to Make Wealth.”

“Developing new technology is a pain in the ass. It is, as Edison said, one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration. Without the incentive of wealth, no one wants to do it. Engineers will work on sexy projects like fighter planes and moon rockets for ordinary salaries, but more mundane technologies like light bulbs or semiconductors have to be developed by entrepreneurs.”

That is the first thing any inventor must realize: there is no guilt or shame in wanting to profit from your idea. That being said, how do you go about doing it? As far as we can tell, there are two main ways of commercializing new ideas.

1) Bringing them to market yourself, or

2) Selling/licensing them to others

This article will offer tips and guidance on how to make either strategy work for you. The first way, as mentioned, is to nurture your idea to maturity and bring it into the market yourself. The advantage of this strategy is that you control more of the process. If your sole hope is finding a buyer for your idea, you are more or less at the mercy of their whims. What if your idea is sound, but the company you want to sell to just wont bite?

On the other hand, bringing it to market yourself lets you use intelligence and skill to increase your odds. So let’s start there.

Bring Your Idea to Market Yourself

The first step in bringing an idea to market is really firming it up in your own mind. Have you determined who your target market is? How will you reach them? Do you know what it truly costs to build your product? Do you even know how to concretely build your product, starting from nothing but raw materials? Our article “5 Steps to Patent Ideas” gives you a checklist for answering these questions.

Once it is created, you can roll out your idea in the manner you see fit. Want to sell it online? Want to sell it in retail stores? Want to do both? With a finished, tangible, honest-to-God product to sell, you have the ability to start making these things happen for yourself. Most of the popular retail outlets have buyers who you can talk to about getting your products sold. Selling online is simply a matter of setting up a website and publicizing what you have to offer. By this point you have firmed up your business plan and are intimately aware of what it takes to produce and sell your invention.

Again, the key benefit of this approach is that you are in the driver’s seat for important decisions. Another option that offers less control but also less stress is selling or licensing your idea to others.

Selling/Licensing Your Idea to Others

The chief benefit of selling or licensing your idea is that not everything is riding on you. Some people are not cut out for the task of inventing, creating, marketing and selling a product themselves or simply do not have the desire to spend so much time and effort doing so. It is hard, long, diligent work that you simply won’t do if your heart isn’t 100% in it. Therefore, selling or licensing your idea to others can be an attractive option.

However, be warned that this approach is often made to seem far sexier and easier than it is. While many people over estimate the effort it takes to get in front of the right companies, they also underestimate the amount of follow-up it will require. The process does not happen overnight and will take time to see through to a successful licensing or sale agreement. The farther along you are with a business plan, presentation, and materials the smoother the process will go.

If you are serious about your idea, take the time to package your invention for a successful presentation. Having a business plan, pictures, drawings, and your USPTO information on hand will accelerate your path to a successful sale or licensing agreement after you get in front of the right companies. This gives you the protection and leverage you need to approach someone about selling your idea.

In closing, these are the two main ways of commercializing new ideas. You should give some thought to which approach reflects your strengths and weaknesses as an inventor and pursue the course that feels best.

Eric Corl is the Founder and CEO of Idea Buyer, a marketplace for new technology and products that allows inventors to showcase their intellectual property to consumer product companies, entrepreneurs, retailers, and manufacturers at www.IdeaBuyer.com. You can email him at EricCorl@IdeaBuyer.com.

There are many misconceptions about what a patent is and is not. Many believe that patents can “protect an idea” in the sense of preventing people from acting on a concept you thought of. Others believe that mailing yourself notes and drawings is a “poor man’s patent” that provides sufficient protection. In fact, patents are only granted to inventions, and the only way to achieve patent status is to apply for one and have it approved by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

In the US, a patent is a set of exclusive rights granted to an inventor by the government or a set period of time. In exchange for these rights, and to assist in their being upheld, the inventor discloses the relevant details of his invention to the Patent and Trademark office.

The two main parts of a patent are the specifications and the claims. A specification is where you describe the inner workings of your invention in gross detail. For example, the creator of a new, lighter and more puncture-resistant bicycle tire might disclose that his tire employs a revolutionary new rubber alloy that is 50% more durable than anything currently on the market. He might further elaborate that the spokes of the tire are the result of a completely unique ergonomic design that the inventor and only the inventor knows, and that this design is what makes the tires lightweight. If the inventor receives his patent, this is what will be protected.

Claims are the part of the patent that explains precisely what this invention does, and is capable of doing. Claims are where you define the invention and what it is from a customer’s standpoint. So for example, you would state something like “Bicycle tire employing X proprietary rubber alloy for and Y spoke design to achieve maximum durability and lightness.” This illustrates, concretely, what your patented invention is.

To get a patent, inventors must also typically include a drawing or prototype of their invention. Many novices assume that patents protect mere ideas. That is, you can think of something, write down your idea in a patent application and own sole rights to it. In fact, this is not the case. To protect and foster innovation, the Patent and Trademark Office will only grant patents to those who create something based on an idea.

Contrary to popular belief, a patent is not a right to use the invention in question. Rather, what a patent does is give an inventor the right to exclude others from making, using, or selling the patented invention for however long the patent lasts. In the US, this is generally 20 years from the date of the patent being filed.

When and if it becomes necessary to enforce a patent, this can generally only be done through civil lawsuits. In most cases, the patent holder will seek monetary compensation for any past infringements. In addition to any damages, he will also seek an injunction. This is a court order prohibiting the infringer from infringing on the patent at any point in the future. It is the court’s way of saying, “We know what you did, and it needs to stop.”

To prove that a patent was infringed upon, the patent holder must prove that the infringer practices all of the requirements set forth in at least on of the patent’s claims. Recall that a patent’s claims are literally the patent. They set forth exactly what it is that this invention does. So if someone stole your spoke design and bribed your scientist into spilling your rubber alloy formula, you will most likely be successful in getting an injunction against that person. Your patent will be recognized and upheld by the courts.

It is also worth putting a naïve patent myth to rest. Many believe it is possible to bypass the lengthy patent application process and high fees by simply mailing yourself an envelope with lots of sketches and idea notes in it. By sending it via federally certified mail, this supposedly “proves” that you were the first to conceive of an idea at a certain time. While this might be useful under certain circumstances, it alone will not provide you with the protection a patent does. Courts will not recognize this as sufficient evidence that you have rights to an idea.

In short, the best advice for those seeking patent protection is to spend the money and consult a patent attorney. These are people who have spent years studying the ins and outs of patents and patent law. If you are thinking of staking your livelihood on a patent idea, these are the people whose advice you want to seek.

There’s nothing like the enthusiasm one feels during a proverbial “I’ve got it!” moment. However, it helps to have basic criteria for defining whether your idea is truly worth patenting or even patentable. Here are five steps you should follow in coming up with patent ideas.

Determine how well it will work.

How well will your idea work in practice? Will it work well enough to replace what people in this field already use? One easy way to determine this is to actively work in the field you envision your product being used for. This will give you a first hand glimpse into the current reality of what’s out there and let you tangibly see how your creation would improve it. If that’s not possible, find someone you trust in that field and bounce your idea off of them for feedback.

Who wants it?

There’s nothing worse than wasting weeks, months, or even years theorizing about a creation that’s “gonna be soooo great!” only to discover that no specific segment of customers truly wants it. To avoid this nightmare scenario, tell others about your idea. Ask them if and in what way it would truly improve their lives. The trick here is asking people who don’t know you very well. They are more likely to be honest instead of preoccupied with not hurting your feelings.

How can it be made?

Another common pitfall is glossing over the messy particulars of how something will be made. In the euphoria of brainstorming, your mind is naturally drawn to the sexy aspects of invention, such as the huge market waiting to be capitalized or your pitch to investors. Instead, force yourself to focus on exactly what it will take to bring your patent idea to life. How can it be made? What materials are needed? What types of skills are necessary to put it all together? Having firm answers to these questions turns you from dreamer into doer.

How much will it cost?

If technical particulars are easy to glaze over, forecasts about costs are downright ignored until it is unavoidable. This is a mistake. Crunching the numbers of how much it will cost to create your patent idea is not only necessary for investors to take it seriously; it will also make the idea real in your mind. Once you know what it will take to make your idea, do some basic research. Where can the materials be purchased cheaply? Do you know anyone with the necessary skills who will work for a stake in the profits instead of up-front cash payments? An entrepreneur who can answer these questions will be taken seriously by everyone involved in the patenting process, from attorneys to the professionals in the industry you are trying to enter.

How are products like this usually sold?

Finally, you need to know how your product will reach paying customers. If your idea is for a new, thinner and more puncture resistant bicycle tire, for example, you need a list of the top bicycle manufacturers in the country. These are the people who could potentially license your patent and put your patent idea into practice. A possible next step would be gathering the names of the top bicycle retailers. These are the stores who would be selling the bicycles. This type of analysis forces you to trace the chain of people you’ll need to work with in order to succeed.

In short, these five steps will firm up your patent in your own mind and in the eyes of those who will be evaluating it. As the Patent and Trademark Office gets more stringent about which types of inventions are patent-worthy, the importance of pleasing them cannot be stressed enough. More important than that, however, is that you be able to convince investors and manufacturers that you have a worthwhile and profitable idea. This, ultimately, is what is going to determine your success or failure. Many inventors lose sight of these concerns in the creative rush they feel. While this is seductive, it will not aid in your goals of acquiring and marketing a patent.

Fortunately, this does not have to be your story. By following the simple steps in this article and the advice on this website, you can be confident that your patent idea stands a chance of succeeding in the marketplace.

For an inventor, conducting a patent search is one of the most important steps in preparing to patent an invention. It is fundamental in determining the similarity of your idea to the ideas of past innovators and in ensuring you have a thoroughly researched and documented patent application. Luckily, there are a couple of online resources that make patent searching both convenient and easy.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) offers the most comprehensive and precise collection of past patents available for review online. These entries date back as early as 1790 and offer descriptions and, in many entries, images of the invention. This directory, however, requires a few searching techniques to accurately find information that you are looking for.

According to the experts at about.com, there are three different ways to search for a patent in the USPTO search database. The first and simplest way begins with a patent number search. Patent numbers can be found on various patented inventions, on its packaging, or in its instruction manual. In most cases this patent number will be in a standard number format with comma separators but, depending on the type of patent, may begin with letters.

In this search, all you must do is enter the number in the “query” field and press “search.” The results page will contain the patent entry for that number. Not only is this process extremely easy, but it is also the most thorough. A search conducted by patent number allows the oldest online searches in the USPTO database and is the only search that goes back further than 20 years.

A search by patent number usually works great, unless you don’t know the patent number of the invention. In that case, a search by inventor’s name might be a better option. If you know the first and last name of the inventor, this type of search is easy as long as you know how to format the query. The proper way is: in/lastname-firstname-$, where “$” means any middle name. If you know the middle name of the inventor, replace the “$” with that. The results for this type of search will list the inventions by any inventor with that name. On a side note, this method will not be as accurate for extremely common names.

The last and most general method of searching for patents on the USPTO database is by keyword. This method allows an inventor to easily use words that relate to their idea to find similar prior inventions. You must first begin with a thorough list of words that relate to the types of inventions you are looking for. Then, narrow down the list to one or two words that you feel best uniquely describe what you are looking for. Enter the first word into “field 1” and, if you have one, the second into “field 2.” Then, if you used more than one word, you must specify how you would like the search to relate those words by using “and,” “or,” or “andnot” from the dropdown list. You may also use keyword phrases by inserting quotation marks around a phrase. This may yield more precise results.

The results, however, will not be nearly as specific as the previous two types of patent searches. You will most likely have a long list of entries that will need to be picked through to find what you are truly looking for. If you are looking for a particular patent, try to stick to the other searches.

While these are the most traditional ways to conduct online patent searches, a new, more convenient method has become available through search giant Google. They have recently launched a website called Google Patent Search. According to Google, this search engine holds detailed information for around 7 million patents and also includes simple searches for patents older than 20 years, unlike those on the USPTO search page. All of the inventions are cataloged and hosted on Google webpages which allows for uniform entries and an easily searchable database. Also, all information is obtained from USPTO records to ensure accurate entries. For those who like more traditional USPTO information, the Google patent search entries actually have links to their corresponding USPTO entries.

The methods of searching on the Google site are extremely straightforward. The simple search on the Google Patent Search homepage is run like any Google site, allowing keyword entry and results listed by relevance. If you have more specific information such as patent number or inventor’s name, a specific search can be performed from the advanced search page. This search engine has made the patent search process extremely quick and simple.

Patent searches are extremely beneficial to an innovator’s goal of patenting an invention. The painstaking process, while sometimes a hassle, can be very important in determining whether or not an invention truly is a novel idea. Just stick with these resources and this overwhelming process will undoubtedly be made much simpler.

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Documenting new ideas is not just good practice. It may be absolutely critical if you intend on getting a patent and then enforcing it. This is because patent laws in the United States are based on the “first to invent rule.” Clause 101 of US Code 35 states:

“Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefore..”

What this means for you the inventor is that you want a set of airtight documentation to prove your idea is yours. But how do you go about doing this? With all the misconceptions and speculation about what is legally acceptable proof, it helps to separate fact from fiction. Let’s begin by dispelling some popular idea documentation myths.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one. “Hey man! Turns out we can skip all that paperwork and waiting and huge cost! My buddy told me all we gotta do is mail a bunch of notes and sketches to ourselves and if anyone tries to rip our idea, we just bring the mail to court!”

This is known as the “poor man’s patent” and it to put it bluntly, it isn’t. Eugene Quinn, patent attorney and founder of IPWatchdog.com, had this to say:

It is absolutely critical for everyone to understand that mailing your idea to yourself will do absolutely nothing to give you protection. All that mailing your work to yourself will prove is that you had it as of a certain date, and that is only assuming there is a postmark on the envelope (which does not always happen) and the envelope is not opened. It provides no rights whatsoever.

So if mailing yourself your work isn’t sufficient documentation, what is? The answer is something called a logbook. A logbook is essentially an inventor’s journal. It is where the inventor keeps track of his progress and dates each step. A logbook proves that you came up with your idea at a certain date and displayed due diligence in pursuing it. However, there are some definite standards you should adhere to when keeping a logbook. This will help ensure that your documentation looks legitimate to patent examiners.

That being said, here are some conventions you should follow when documenting your invention in a logbook.

1) You should start your logbook as soon as you think of an idea. Write down detailed records of key concepts, test results, and anything else having to do with the creation of your idea. This is the type of material that belongs in a logbook.

2) While there are pre-made logbooks for sale, you can easily make your own. Be sure to use a bound notebook, however, and not a loose-leaf. The reason is that bound notebooks make it hard to conceal the fact that pages were added or taken out.

3) Number each page consecutively. This establishes that the progress you made on your idea took place in a sequential order that anyone with common sense can observe. When one notebook is full, begin a new one and specify that this notebook is a continuation of the last one. There should be no visible gaps in your record keeping.

4) Each entry you write should be signed and dated by you and anyone else who participated in that step of the invention process. If at all possible, get a notary public to sign as well.

5) Give each entry a header with information about what is contained in it. For example, the date, subject, number of participants, witnesses, etc.

6) Include records of everything you do. When in doubt, assume that it is best to include it. Do not just include successful test results, for example. If you exclude negative findings or tests, the patent examiner may decide that you “cherry-picked” only the good stuff and reject your application.

7) Any and all other participants in the invention process need to have their roles disclosed. The importance of this convention cannot be stressed enough. If you omit an inventor’s name from an invention he helped create, it is considered fraud.

8) Any loose materials like drawings, photos, or sketches should be signed, dated, and cross-referenced to the notebook entry they pertain to. It is best to tape or staple this material to the notebook entries in question.

In closing, these are some good, common-sense conventions to follow when documenting new ideas. Adhering to them will give you a much greater chance of receiving and maintaining patent protection.

There are many misconceptions about what a patent is and is not. Many believe that patents can “protect an idea” in the sense of preventing people from acting on a concept you thought of. Others believe that mailing yourself notes and drawings is a “poor man’s patent” that provides sufficient protection. In fact, patents are only granted to inventions, and the only way to achieve patent status is to apply for one and have it approved by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

In the US, a patent is a set of exclusive rights granted to an inventor by the government or a set period of time. In exchange for these rights, and to assist in their being upheld, the inventor discloses the relevant details of his invention to the Patent and Trademark office.

The two main parts of a patent are the specifications and the claims. A specification is where you describe the inner workings of your invention in gross detail. For example, the creator of a new, lighter and more puncture-resistant bicycle tire might disclose that his tire employs a revolutionary new rubber alloy that is 50% more durable than anything currently on the market. He might further elaborate that the spokes of the tire are the result of a completely unique ergonomic design that the inventor and only the inventor knows, and that this design is what makes the tires lightweight. If the inventor receives his patent, this is what will be protected.

Claims are the part of the patent that explains precisely what this invention does, and is capable of doing. Claims are where you define the invention and what it is from a customer’s standpoint. So for example, you would state something like “Bicycle tire employing X proprietary rubber alloy for and Y spoke design to achieve maximum durability and lightness.” This illustrates, concretely, what your patented invention is.

To get a patent, inventors must also typically include a drawing or prototype of their invention. Many novices assume that patents protect mere ideas. That is, you can think of something, write down your idea in a patent application and own sole rights to it. In fact, this is not the case. To protect and foster innovation, the Patent and Trademark Office will only grant patents to those who create something based on an idea.

Contrary to popular belief, a patent is not a right to use the invention in question. Rather, what a patent does is give an inventor the right to exclude others from making, using, or selling the patented invention for however long the patent lasts. In the US, this is generally 20 years from the date of the patent being filed.

When and if it becomes necessary to enforce a patent, this can generally only be done through civil lawsuits. In most cases, the patent holder will seek monetary compensation for any past infringements. In addition to any damages, he will also seek an injunction. This is a court order prohibiting the infringer from infringing on the patent at any point in the future. It is the court’s way of saying, “We know what you did, and it needs to stop.”

To prove that a patent was infringed upon, the patent holder must prove that the infringer practices all of the requirements set forth in at least on of the patent’s claims. Recall that a patent’s claims are literally the patent. They set forth exactly what it is that this invention does. So if someone stole your spoke design and bribed your scientist into spilling your rubber alloy formula, you will most likely be successful in getting an injunction against that person. Your patent will be recognized and upheld by the courts.

It is also worth putting a naïve patent myth to rest. Many believe it is possible to bypass the lengthy patent application process and high fees by simply mailing yourself an envelope with lots of sketches and idea notes in it. By sending it via federally certified mail, this supposedly “proves” that you were the first to conceive of an idea at a certain time. While this might be useful under certain circumstances, it alone will not provide you with the protection a patent does. Courts will not recognize this as sufficient evidence that you have rights to an idea.

In short, the best advice for those seeking patent protection is to spend the money and consult a patent attorney. These are people who have spent years studying the ins and outs of patents and patent law. If you are thinking of staking your livelihood on a patent idea, these are the people whose advice you want to seek.