Getting Started With Inventions
How can I find out if my idea is new?
How can I evaluate my invention's potential?
I have a unique way of evaluating whether an invention will work in the consumer marketplace, because when you're making an invention, you're making it to sell, and you need people to buy it. So you have to be real with yourself and say, will this sell in the marketplace? The first thing I do is I look at the idea and I do research to determine how many people would use this idea. Let's say I have an invention for a tennis racket to reduce the amount of friction when the ball hits the racket. I would then research how many tennis rackets are sold. That's your baseline. Then I calculate out, how many retail stores are there? And then I calculate out, how much can I sell this for? Then I do some research, and if I find that there's enough volume by looking at my market space, then I'll pursue it.
Are there companies that can help me with my new invention?
The reality is that there's a lot of product design firms, because most people have an idea but it is a labyrinth of choices and decisions that you need to make before you can realize the product. So the first step is to have an idea. And then draw it. And then do some research to determine: how are you going to make this product. And if you don't know about material selection, then you need to type in "Product Design Firm" and your city. When you are developing your product, you don't have all the answers. And you need to find those answers. And the more research and the more answers you find it will prevent a disaster when your product gets to market.
How do I find a great evaluator for my product?
What if my invention gets bad reviews?
That's the first challenge of an inventor and product designer and an entrepreneur, you need to listen to those reviews. Don't shoo them away that people don't get it. I always hear that people say "I have this invention and no one gets it... their fault". The first thing I look at, I always say "your fault, not their fault". If you want to sell your product you need to listen to what the marketplace is telling you. So then you need to re-evaluate with yourself, then you have to re-evaluate with people that you can trust their opinion and judgment, evaluate the person using it a third time. It's okay to change your product. It's okay to change it. It's not okay to say "this is my product and if no one likes it then...". It'll fail. Change it, adapt. It's not a black and white process; it's a very fluid process. It's important to listen to the marketplace, ultimately somebody needs to buy your product. So the boss really is the consumer, and, the more consumers you talk to and get feedback about your product, the better it will be (if you listen to them).
Should I 'go with my gut' when it comes to my invention?
Absolutely not! I've never gone with my gut. My gut is always wrong. The first thing you need to do is never go through gut, that's like gambling in Vegas. ‘Oh, I have a gut feeling!' Come on, inventing by your gut is worse than gambling. The odds are 100% against you. Inventing products and coming up with ideas and then designing products is what I call calculating your risks. You need to research, research, research and get a ton of feedback and really craft your prototype to the point of perfection and then bring it to the market and be willing to redo all the work again to make it right. Never go with your gut. I would say research every new nuance of your idea and your product in your industry but do not rely on your gut feeling because everybody feels that their idea is million or billion dollar idea, and that's not the case.
What if two people invent the same thing at the same time?
There is call the first, I call first use or first person to apply rule and in United States you can have an idea and be sleeping on it and another individual can have the same idea and apply for a patent. As soon as he applies for that patent, he is first to market it, his first rights of patent, which means that to me as an inventor and product designer, if I apply for the patent, somebody cannot come after me and apply but if someone were to apply on the same day, then the issue really needs to be addressed by the court because you need to show when did you really have the idea and how long you've been working on it. Sometimes ideas are in a lab or in a design room for 2 or 3 years before you apply for a patent. Because when you apply for a patent, you are applying for the finished product, not a work-in-progress. It really has to be a finished product. If not then you are applying for a number of patents and work-in-progress. So when you are ready to manufacture the product, that's when you apply for your patent.
How has inventing changed over the years?
If you look back at the 1800's we were pre-industrialized and then you saw tons of inventions, it was an amazing time to be an inventor because everything needed to be invented: machinery and processes and the typewriter and the telephone, all of these things were invented. Our generation, today, takes those inventions for granted because they've always been there. They didn't know life without a computer. The difference now that I've seen is you have inventors that design products but then you also have inventors that are designing programs for the computer. Google is an invention. Amazon One-Click is an invention and they have a patent on it. YouTube and how they deliver that content to you, that is an invention. A program can be considered an invention now, so you can either be an inventor inside designing a product for a consumer or an inventor designing a program to deliver content on the internet. It's an amazing paradigm shift and it's hard for people to realize that, but most things on the internet have a root in a patent or a program patent.
