Something occurred to me that I’m POSITIVE would be a big hit.
There’s no way it wouldn’t.
Problem is, I have no idea how to make one. Nor really any desire to make one, I want to buy one but nobody sells this. It’s a re-purposing of something that already exists.
I don’t want to go to the companies that already sell this and say “Hey, your product should also do X” because then I would get no money. Right? Companies aren’t known for rewarding random strangers who bring them ideas, are they?
And you can’t patent an idea.
So what I have to do is figure out how the technology works and how to adapt it to MY idea, make a lot of drawings explaining my new product, do a lit review to make sure I’m original, and then patent that. Is that right?
My high school science teacher held a patent and I believe it cost him several hundred dollars to hire a lawyer to shepherd the process - is that really true? I’m sure I’d get the money back, but I don’t want to share my idea with someone who might take it and run. At what point do you hire a lawyer? Is it really necessary.
No, I’m not going to call 1-800-Invention or whatever that is.
M’kay folks, this is giving you notice - you now officially knew me “before” I hit The Big Leagues. It’s just a matter of time - fame and fortune are on their way!
Well that’s the trick isn’t it? Ideas are easy. Actually making stuff that works, marketing and selling it is another matter.
What you have to do is actually design whatever this device is you are thinking of. Or at least have enough of a concept that you can hire someone to design and build a prototype.
Talk to an attorney about when you can actually submit an application for a patent and having your subcontractors sign non-disclosure agreements.
Once you have a working prototype, then you have to manufacture it in large quantities. You can outsource that stuff to China or wherever.
Now you have to let people know about it. How are you going to market this product? What is your advertising budget? Who is going to sell it?
The good news is that you can outsource most of these services to companies that specialize in them. But turning a million dollar idea into an actual million dollars is a lot of work. A lot of people just have this vague notion they can just come up with an abstract idea and if it’s good enough, someone will just hand them a blank check.
It will walk you through the patent process. It is certainly possible to patent an invention without a patent agent, but there are a lot of steps to the process. And remember, a patent doesn’t do anything except give you the right to sue someone who copies your invention. 90% of patents never make any money.
As has been said, ideas are a dime a dozen. Thousands every day. The idea is the easy part, turning your idea into a profitable product is extremely difficult.
I have an idea of developing something called The Santa Landing Strip[SUP]TM[/SUP]. My market is anyone with kids and a roof. All it would be is a 3ft by 20ft piece of red fluorescent plastic that is hung from the chimney in order to guide Santa down to your little snowflake’s bedroom. Who wants to go halves with me?
Probably ought to watch that movie re: the intermittent window wiper guy, too.
I’m hearing you on the extremely difficult part, and I’m thinking of the various places I’ve worked. I temped a bunch, I liked being there just long enough to learn my job & leaving before I got bored.
Some of my employers succeeded, some failed. If I had to take a guess at what the failures had in common, I would say they didn’t see the big picture. They dealt with what was fixable to them, but wouldn’t acknowledge the obstacles that they couldn’t overcome. Many of which concerned their customers’ needs, not their own.
So many of my employers weren’t interested in seeing through their clients’ eyes - and since I was an outsider, and not invested, I was sometimes surprised at what they overlooked.
I’ll bet their single-mindedness helped them stay focused on their goals, though, which is what got them started. Maybe that’s why they say it’s more difficult for a company to grow than to initially succeed. Our strengths become weaknesses.
Patents are by no means free, even if your filing meets the legal requirements and you do all the work yourself, correctly. There are filing fees and renewal fees involved. And that’s just to protect your rights for a temporary non-extendable period. Getting your doodad into production, and marketed, and sold, and made profitable is where most of the effort and cost is going to be involved, and patent rights are merely a minor part of that. Nobody is going to beat a path to your door, begging to buy the rights, just because you have a patent on something.
Just because an idea is patentable does not make it good. You really need to turn it into an actual invention first, and then sound out some people with some relevant experience on whether it’s worth your time and money to secure rights that maybe nobody else would want to have anyway.
Patent the idea quietly, then wait for manufacturers of the current device build a market around your idea (you can surreptitiously encourage that), then sue them for a bazillion dollars and settle out of court for a more reasonable sum. This strategy has worked for lots of companies not willing to put the effort into actually developing an idea and building a market for it.
Thing is, your idea is probably worthless. Big companies have teams of guys who sit around thinking up ideas, and they have countless others who contribute ideas as part of their jobs. And these ideas are fine, but as has been said, ideas are a dime a dozen.
Having a good idea for a product is nothing special. Your product idea is very likely to be worthless, even if it could be developed into a marketable product the costs and effort of bring the product to market are very likely to be much higher than the revenues from the product. Go to Walmart, and wander around the shelves for a minute, looking at all the gadgets and doodads and thingamajigs. Now imagine how much money each individual doodad is making for its inventor.
Some people get rich by developing valuable products. Most people don’t.
My boss is an incredibly smart guy. He has dozens and dozens of patents. And he literally comes up with a couple of new invention ideas every week. And he’s got lots of capital from his previous successful business ventures. And he’s developing ONE of his ideas at his current company, and it’s costing him a fortune to keep the business going, because while the ideas have the potential to be very valuable, it costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay the developers, keep the lights on, pay the bills, and on and on.
He could possibly sell his idea to a larger technology company, but without a proven product he’d get very little for his product, and very likely they’d never make it past the planning stage at that larger company.
So the notion that invention is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration isn’t just a hoary old saying, it’s the literal truth. You need capital, management ability and drive to bring a product to market, and the idea is the easiest part.
You find people that can and convince them to buy it or license it. Better have a well-prepared business case and a good marketing plan prepared first, though. For starters.
IMHO “tough luck” is basically the right answer. If you cannot implement it yourself or pay for somebody else to do it for you, you have to face up to the fact that the current economy and society have nothing but contempt for the lone inventor. As you may already heard, your idea is “worthless” and smart professionals must have already considered and discarded it. Oh, and if somehow you will make it work, everyone and his brother will steal it - that’s called “open innovation”. That’s right, we have a whole business philosophy nowadays in which theft of other people’s ideas is not necessarily an obviously central topic, but nevertheless an implied reality.
But don’t forget - everybody is strongly committed to innovation. Innovation is our first priority…
From sociological standpoint I think this can be understood as follows - inventors are vital, in practice, for economic and social progress. But, inventors are few and far between. How easy would it be to setup “inventor lobby” or even “inventors rights movement”? By contrast, the non-inventors are everywhere, and many of them (like those professionals who tell you about the 99% perspiration) may stand to directly benefit from implementing your invention better than you can without your precious help.
The fact that this basically kills (or even prevents from being born) the goose that could lay golden eggs (namely the serial inventor) is absolutely immaterial to them. In fact, those professionals would tell you that a serial inventor who cannot implement his inventions is a contradiction in terms, so their absence is nothing to worry about.
I’m reminded of that Simpson’s episode where Homer dreams about inventing some world changing invention, but in the dream he can’t actually get a good look at what it is. “Surely as the inventor of this device, the greatest invention ever made, it would be a waste of your valuable time for me to show it to you.”
Tell every person you can about the idea. Most people think there are legions of smart people out there waiting to overhear an idea so they can steal it and make huge profits but that’s virtually never the case. Even if someone else thinks you have a great idea, they’re too busy with their own thing to try and steal it from you.
In 99% of cases, telling other people about the idea will reveal some hidden flaw that never would have occurred to you and make the idea unworkable. In 1% of cases, the idea actually has merit and people can provide you with valuable feedback about how to pivot your idea to better target it.
Thanks! You’re absolutely right - I don’t know WHY it seems like the idea is the hard part. Probably because the rest LOOKS like a no-brainer.