Innovation in the US - is it possible for someone born into poverty to succeed with a great idea?

Factual Questions
1

About three years ago, I came up with an idea for a new technology. I had an application in a field that I’m very experienced in, and developed a product based on this technology. I’m quite sure that due to its revolutionary nature, this product will be successful, and there are many other applications of this technology as well.

I was born poor, however, and have had some bad luck. While I have educated myself as much as possible, and continue to do so, I can’t afford to get a degree. I’ve found it nearly impossible to get the attention of anyone who might be able to help with the production and marketing of this product, and there don’t seem to be any resources for someone in my position to get help. Venture capitalists don’t work with inventors, and the only group I’ve found is only interested in cheaply-produced “As Seen On TV” type products - mine is a piece of industrial equipment requiring a substantial investment. I’ve called several major corporations to try to get an appointment, but none have bothered to return my calls.

I’ve been unemployed for almost a year now, and it seems likely I may be homeless soon. I’m building a full-scale prototype of my product, but due to my limited means it’s taking a long time, and I may be on the street before it’s completed. I do have working scale models demonstrating the product’s feasibility, and would be more than happy at the chance to give a presentation.

Patents now cost from $6,000 - $10,000, and you need to pay an additional several thousand dollars every few years in “maintenance fees”. It seems only the rich can afford to get a patent, and I’ve been told I may need five or six of them. Is innovation limited to those born into the resources to develop their ideas? How many others have the ability to create jobs and help the economy grow, but are prevented from doing so due to circumstances of birth?

2

Lookup Chester Carlton. Born into extreme poverty and he invented the Xerox machine, and grew quite wealthy doing it.

Of course it took him about 40 years.

3

Having worked my entire career in Silicon Valley I can tell you that many companies pay for their employee’s patent applications, so the employee doesn’t have to bear the cost of getting a patent, however you have to work for a company that is willing to do this and most companies won’t. It would also mean that your company may have some say in how the patent is marketed and used.

There are wealthy people who are interested in helping people with money-making ideas. I have heard it called Angel Funding and I know people who actually invest large sums of money in order to develop an idea into a product that can then be field tested. Of course the angel investor gets a large percentage of the company that is created, so I’m not sure that’s what you want.

Given your situation I would suggest you try to find a job working for a company that could directly benefit from your invention, either by using the equipment or by marketing and selling it, and once employed approach them about funding the patent process.

I don’t think you necessarily have to be wealthy to get an idea patented, or a product to market, but it certainly helps.

4

I would be astounded if a patent that a company paid for was not assigned to the company. Meaning that the company owns the patent. The inventor that works for the company generally gets some kind of small bonus above and beyond their normal salary. This is how it works at every technology company I have worked for and is how things work at other companies my friends and colleges have worked for.

5

I should think that any idea, great or otherwise, would have to be marketed to be profitable for the inventor or anyone else.

6

Patenting isn’t the only way to go. You could publish the complete plans and documentation for your invention on the web at no cost. If the idea really is good, and the product can be made profitably, then someone will build it and market it.

Obviously that excludes the possibility of patent royalties. But you shouldn’t have much trouble being recognized as it’s inventor and the world’s foremost expert, which opens the possibility of consulting, or a good job managing its operation. That’s probably more success than many inventors see.

It’s done all the time in software. We call it Open Source.

7

Of course it is possible. Very few inventors actually have the personal resources to fund the commercialization of their inventions. Unless they are born into a family of multimillionaires, pretty much everyone who has a useful invention is faced with the
problem of finding someone else to fund them.

I am currently working on an early-stage startup company with two other people who have enormous experience in starting companies and obtaining funding. What follows is just my opinion based on what I’ve learned in the past two years with this company.

…

There are no resources out there to help you. No one is interested in providing this kind of “help”. Your only chance of success is convincing a person that your invention has a substantial chance of making them a lot of money (enough to offset the substantial risk of losing whatever money they invest).

If you haven’t been able to schedule a single meeting with someone who might be interested in your technology, this is your fault. Plain and simple. There is something you are doing wrong. There are plenty of people who literally have more money than they know what to do with, and are looking for somewhere to stick it. I don’t know what it is that you’re doing wrong, but I have some general advice:

  1. No one is interesting in helping you. They are interested in making money. When communicating with potential investors, don’t ask for help. It reeks of desperation and diminishes your credibility. Crackpots ask for help. You don’t need “help”, you just need someone who is willing to give you a substantial amount of money in exchange for a substantial ownership stake in your invention/company. The investor will not view it as help, they will view it as a calculated business decision that they expect to profit from.

Similarly, don’t complain about your background or how difficult it has been for you to get attention. All that stuff is also classic crackpot material, and will similarly guarantee your documents an immediate appointment with someone’s shredder.

  1. Regarding patents - you do not need to pay to guarantee future patent protection over your inventions. The US is the only major industrialized country with a “first-to-invent” patent system. This means that if you can maintain adequate documentation of your invention and the work you do to develop it, you can be granted a patent even if someone else subsequently files a similar patent (or develops a similar technology) before you file your application.

In other countries, whoever files the patent first owns the technology, a so-called “first-to-file” system. The “first-to-invent” system in the US is much more friendly to small inventors.

The requirements on what “adequate documentation” consist of are quite onerous and strict, but doable even for an individual inventor. You can take as long as you want to file the patent (and pay the lawyer, filing fees, etc.), as long as you follow the rules. I am happy to explain in more detail if you like.

Also, you can file a provisional patent for $140, which allows you to claim “patent pending” status. You can write a provisional patent yourself, as long as you are careful and methodical about it. There are some disadvantages to provisional patents which I can also explain if necessary.

  1. Don’t give up trying to find an investor. Many people are close-minded and will dismiss you because of your background. That’s unavoidable. Keep looking, and keep trying.

There are people out there who will view your background as an advantage, not a disadvantage. You just have to find them. You might start with finding self-made businessmen in your community. Even if they aren’t willing to fund you themselves, they might take an interest in your technology, and know someone who would be willing.

Try to contact some professors at (good) local universities. They are often well-connected and used to evaluating new ideas, and obtaining funding for commercialization.

Forget about major corporations. There is essentially zero chance of penetrating a major corporation from the outside and reaching someone who has the technical knowledge, authority and motivation to do something with your invention. Even if you could get through to a person like that, most major corporations are not set up to take risks like investing in a 1-person company. It’s pointless.

The ideal person for you to talk to is the owner/founder of a successful small business in your field, or a closely-related field.

Obviously, everything you disclose to anyone should be covered by an NDA, for patent reasons as well as the obvious ones. Many people will ignore NDA’s and bet on your being unable to enforce them, so use some discretion in who you disclose stuff to.

I would be happy to talk in more detail by PM, email or phone.

8

This is horrible advice. Whoever puts in the effort to commercialize the invention and build the actual finished products will be recognized as the foremost expert, not the guy working out of his garage who stupidly posted the idea on the internet 3 years ago.

The open-source approach works for certain types of software, primarily because a single person can actually produce and distribute a useful piece of software without requiring substantial investment. It is totally inapplicable to industrial equipment, or any other real-world item. If you pay $20M for a WidgetMaster 2000 for your factory, who are you going to pay for support? WidgetMaster Inc., the company that commercialized, manufactured, tested, certified, and licensed the WidgetMaster, or some guy on the internet who claims he came up with the idea?

9

You need money to back up your ideas. Even charitable foundations seldom work with individuals and only give money to organized charities. $6,000 isn’t a lot of money to a working person. If you’ve been out of work yes it’s a small fortune, but it’s a part time weekend job for a year and a bit, if you have a regular job.

Then you’re not going to get an investor as easy as a partner. You need a partner who will not only give money but time and assoicated risks as well.

10

Ideas are meaningless. Anyone can have an idea. If you can’t market it or sell it, what is an idea? It can’t keep you warm at night or feed you. An idea is nothing on its own except brain candy for you.

Poor people can get higher education, that’s not an excuse so stop grasping at it. If you have little income and few assets, you should effortlessly qualify for pell grants and the maximum amount of student loans. Your EFC (expected family contribution) would be zero. Fill out a FAFSA this year, even if just for kicks to see what you qualify for. It’ll likely be more than you think.

To second what someone said above, it is going to come off as borderline crackpotty for an aspiring inventor to be blaming an economically disadvantaged youth for their problems today. Don’t say or even think anything like this around potential investors.

You need to get a second (at least) honest and critical set of eyes on your invention to critique its worth before you pour your entire life into it, as well. My uncle spent months of his life drawing on graph paper and refusing to look for work because he was inventing something genius and amazing and he’d never have to work another day in his life after he got it on the market! (yeah, right :rolleyes:). It turned out to be some lame girls zipping jumpsuit design that he couldn’t even patent because of prior art and lack of uniqueness. So don’t be like him.

11

There is some good advice here. Ideas are a dime a dozen. Everyone has idea. Ultimately, the guy who succeeds is the guy who can package and market something, even if it’s something as well-trodden as a hamburger stand.

12

It doesn’t cost much to file for a patent, which will guarantee your patent rights if you have something unique. But you should also realize that you can get patents with very limited protection. Almost every water faucet is patented to protect against direct copying, but none of those patents gives the owner exclusive rights to making water faucets. Neigh sayers are everywhere (nit pickers, I used the spelling neigh intentionally). Ignore them. Find the facts. You don’t need a working model for a patent or to protect your rights. Stop building a full-scale prototype and make an inexpensive scale model that demonstrates the unique features of your invention. With a patent application filed, and a simple model you can find people with the knowledge and expertise to help you and provide useful information, and a reasonable opinion of your claim that the product will be successful.

OTOH, are you sure your idea is revolutionary? Almost every variation of everything has been thought of and tried. Revolutionary would mean it provides significant improvement in functionality and cost, obsoleting existing equipment. Otherwise its not revolutionary, just different. If you are pursuing this only based of a profit motive, your chances of success are greatly diminished. Invention requires dedication to science, making money is better accomplished by taking advantage of people’s greed.

13

YES!

I wish America’s teachers and self-help wannabes would quit telling people that ideas matter. Ideas don’t matter. They are totally and completely worthless.

What is valuable is what you DO with an idea. Production, marketing, sales, service and management. None of those five things are impossible for a poor person to accomplish if they set out to do that.

The problem is that most people focus so much on the idea that they fail on the follow-through. The worst idea in the world will make you a million bucks if you succeed on the follow-through. Just look at pet rocks and realty TV. Conversely, the best idea in the world will lose you a million bucks if you can’t follow through on it.

So, my advice for everyone out there, including the OP: pretend that you have no great idea. Pretend that people hate your product and have no use for it. On that basis, come up with a plan to make it, market it and manage the organization required to do those things. If you can come up with that plan, if you can find the people and the resources and the skills necessary to execute that plan, you will be successful. If you don’t even have enough information/experience to put the plan together, forget the idea until you can complete the plan. The idea just doesn’t matter.

14

This is perilous advice. The bolded part, in particular, is not really universally true.

You must file in the US within the first year of any sale or offer for sale, public use (some very limited exceptions here), or printed publication of your invention. This is true even if the sale, use, or publication is not yours. So if you’re planning on holding the cards close to your chest and not publishing, you’d better also be maintaining a very strict watch on publication everywhere else. A single copy of someone’s thesis in Latvia, if properly indexed in a university library, is enough to start the one-year clock ticking.

Further, if you and someone else file on the same idea, the first filer has a lot of procedural advantages. The later filer better have really good documentation, all witnessed and understood by a noninventor. It’s possible to do, but for the vast majority of people, going ahead and filing at least a provisional patent application is a lot easier. (This does start the clock ticking on your right to file foreign applications, which is even more expensive than patenting in the US.)

15

I agree that ideas are overrated. As are patents. Almost all patented inventions never make a dime. My former employer used to come up with 3-4 business ideas EVERY DAY, and had literally hundreds of patents. And the company he founded concentrated on ONE of those ideas, or rather, a group of related ideas.

If you really do have a worthwhile idea, it isn’t because the idea is new and revolutionary. People (that is, businesspeople) will only care if the idea can make them money or save them money.

If you really think you have a good idea, try this book: Patent It Yourself - Do-It-Yourself Legal Book - Nolo. It will walk you through the process of getting your invention patented. As you note, it won’t be cheap, getting the patent will cost you several thousand dollars. But that isn’t exactly expensive either. If you can’t scrape together a couple thousand dollars to patent your invention, how the heck are you planning to manufacture, market and distribute your invention?

If you’re unemployed and can’t scrape up a couple thousand dollars, forget developing your invention right now, get yourself a job instead. The notion that because you weren’t born with $6,000 in the bank to patent your idea, you’re forever screwed, is simply nonsense. That’s a very small amount of money, and anyone with a bit of discipline could save that much in a year or two of work.

16

Oh, and the “We’ll help you develop your invention!” programs are all scams. Every last one. So forget about those.

If your idea is an improvement on industrial equipment that would require a large capital investment, then you might want to resign yourself to the idea that your invention is never going to bring you any money. Because as was said before, large industrial equipment manufacturers have thousands of good ideas for improvements. Your idea might really be an improvement, but unless it’s an improvement that SAVES MONEY, no one will care.

17

I wouldn’t go that far.

OP - Please, if you haven’t already, go see Everyday Edisons at http://www.everydayedisons.com/ and join Edison Nation (Its free)

There is much good information and advice there, and some potential, for truly great inventions, to have them develop and license your product for you (again - at no charge - they split the royalties with you.)

Granted they are geared more towards mass-market products, and some ASOTV, and not so much niche products.

18

There is some good advice & some horrible advice here, as usual, but I wanted to point out that “Everyday Edisons” in particular has earned a horrible reputation, and I wouldn’t advise any inventor to go in that direction.

19

Also, keep in mind that when you’re getting a patent for $6000, you’re more than likely not paying all of that toward the filing fees. Most of it goes to the patent lawyers who write you a good patent that will withstand IP challenges and clearly define why your idea/gizmo is unique and should be protected.

20

There is some good advice here, and I just wanted to add two more bits:

Look up a local chapter of SCORE - they are a non-profit that provides free help to small business people. They may be able to work with you to help you translate that idea into a workable networking action plan. You need to meet people that can help you more than you need to create a full-scale prototype.

Seriously consider the idea of going back to school. You can take classes not only in your area, but also in the skills you will need to develop your idea. Plus, if you pick a school that has a strong department in whatever technology you’ve invented, you can use those contacts to meet people who may be in a position to help you.

Ultimately, you need to leave your garage at some point, get a haircut and put on a suit, and go out to meet the people who know the people you want to know. There are lots of poor people who made it big with an idea, but it requires lots and lots of face-to-face social networking.