Sunday, 1 October 2017

I have a Great Idea?…So now what? 3 Steps to Take Before Getting a Patent

If you’ve just had your stroke of genius moment, or are trying to protect or advance the IP within your startup or small business the tips in this article should help you increase your chances of success. My hope is that by the end you’ll be as prepared as you can be for the realities that are going to face any new idea when you it hits the market.

I’ve talked with hundreds of successful and nascent inventors. It’s hard to point to one determining factor that unites them all, but one common theme I see time and time again is that most inventors get tripped up when it comes time to actually determining if there is a market out there for their products.

The biggest mistake that people make is relying too much on their gut. Sure yo have to have a dream ands tick to it. But sitting around thinking that you’ll know where the market is going when you could just go out and ask people is a dangerous strategy.

Look at the example of Quirky, a company that tried to crowd source innovation by having people vote on inventions they like. There biggest failure was an $800,000 development project for a kit that could turn anything into an RC car, that never even saw store shelves. The biggest issue wasn’t that they didn’t have good or interesting ideas. The problem was that the people voting weren’t buyers. And as a whole the company had no idea who any of their buyers would be.

If you’re like most engineers, entrepreneurs, or first time inventors you’re overflowing with a tons of great ideas. Big dreams you’d love to see come to be. But deciding which ideas to pursue, and which ideas are the best to build out and test, and then further on, which ideas are worth even thinking about patenting is a big task. Taking too many of the wrong shots can exhaust a new enterprise and any inventor.

As a fun little exercise work through this flow chart

Source: Popular Science, “Inventor’s Handbook” package , Illustrations by Doublenaut

Now a patent alone can be a huge part of a smart growth strategy, but I don’t want people to come away from this with any level of naiveté, a great patent can’t save or create a business. You might be able to effectively license a patent, but make sure you can really build a business around an idea by following the steps below before trying to get a patent.

**How to Test An Idea Before You Try to Launch a Business, or Think about Patenting It**

Step 1: Solidify Your Idea for an Invention

Hover boards. We all want hover boards.

It’s a great idea…but that’s all, it’s just an idea.

Let’s say you wanted to build as hover board. And you figured out how to make it work and power it without hassle. Now you could patent it here, but your work is still not done. How are you going to sell it? How will it charge? Will it fly or just hover?

I recommend that all inventors, and many of my friends, work through Peter Theil’s 7 Questions for Product Innovation framework. Before you get to excited. Ask yourself?:

Can we build something 10X better than what is already there? i.e. will my new hover board be 10x better for consumers than existing skateboards? How about walking or biking, will it really be more convenient in a real way? Are there dangers I’m not thinking of?
Is it the right time? Can my idea actually thrive in this market?
Will I be able to “own” my market? If it’s easy for another billion dollar company in my market to make some minor changes, it’s probably not worth building
Am I the right person to build this? and If not, do I know the people who can and would they?
Can I distribute this? Do I know how I could actually sell this and get it to market.
How durable is my idea? What will happen in 10 years when there could be hundreds of people selling something similar to my idea? Will customers still want to buy from me?
Is there some secret magic here? Does your innovation uncover a secret, which solves a fundamental problem for the customer?

Peter Theil’s winner take all ideology might be too much for you, but a t a basic level think through your idea, and keep a list of your notes.

The gaol at this point is to just have a basic business plan or elevator pitch. Can you describe your product/idea in one sentence to your target customer? Would your grandma get it?

Some Further Questions:

What’s your purpose? does this idea fulfill a dream you have a strong feeling towards? Being an entrepreneur is hard. It’s brutal and lonely.

Source: John Saddington

That big old chasm in the middle there, what is often referred to as the “Startup Valley of Death,” will take a lot of passion to get through.

Source: Osawa and Miyazaki, 2006

Be prepared for the reality that your idea might change as you progress through the steps outlined above.

Are you solving a real problem? If customers don’t know they have the problem you think they do, or they don’t quickly grasp why they want it, it’s probably not going to be an easy sell.

If there are people that have the problem, can you find them and talk to them?

Hopefully you had answers for all of the above questions. And that’s good, next, we need to check out the market.

Research the Market

The biggest hurdle will be if an invention already exists. Just because you haven’t heard of something it doesn’t mean that people aren’t already selling, or haven’t tried to sell it before. If it didn’t work for them there may be a good reason. I recommend doing a patent search and going through the “un-official” patent search method I’ve outlined in this how to for patent searches. Trying to locate similar products on the market can let you know what sorts of challenges might face your new invention.

Try to consider who would actually buy your product. Say you were inventing a new kind of water, well it’s hard to find any one person that really really wants it since we all need. But maybe you sell something that’s sports specific. Well, then like Gatorade, you know that you need to target athletes. go through the process of who would ultimately “buy” your idea and start to understand what and how those people shop.

Next, take some time.

Yeah really, take a bit of time. Process what’s out there. as Greg Isenberg, a venture capitalist and serial entrepreneur, said in a 2014 interview, After I’ve gone through the process of writing down a bunch of ideas, I don’t like to rush into building a business plan or recruiting the team,” Isenberg stated. “I like to wait a few weeks, [to] see which ideas really stick with me.” Taking this time before you jump head over heals will let you genuinely evaluate on a personal level if you’re still interested in the idea after the initial luster has faded.

Finally, start small. Create a Prototype or Build a Minimum Viable Product (MVP).

This is “the simplest form of your idea that you can actually sell as product,” said Eric Ries, a Silicon Valley-based entrepreneur and the author of “The Lean Startup” (Crown Business, 2011). Or as Reid Hoffman has put it:

If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.

Getting something simple out will let you gauge what other hurdles you might face, and actually have something tangible to show people.

Step 2 Get Validation

Don’t fear feedback. Good feedback will make your idea better.

The big thing witch gauging an ideas possibility of success is to always be open to feedback and to seek validation for your ideas. You need constant feedback to succeed.

Now that we have an MVP we can actually test it on the market. There are multiple ways to do this, but basically you can test out your idea in a small way out in the wild and see how people would react.

Create a simple landing page, and send Ads to it. There are multiple routes you could take here, but I’ll just shoot your over to the brilliant Product Creation Masterclass from ConvertKit. It’s relatively easy to set up Facebook Ads, Reddit Ads, or plain old Adwords to get people looking at your “idea” in it’s final form.
You could even get more intense and create a website and social media presence, building on the strategy outlined above. This is something you could show to friends, colleagues, and potential customers to gauge interest, heck, you could even take preorders.
Expose people to your site or landing page on User experience sites like Usability Hub. Do they get it?
Present your MVP to friends and family. They may have heard your original idea, but what do they think of the “product” that creates. You can also look for Facebook Groups, or SubReddits that might be interested and try to show them your product.
Don’t forget to ask for help, or ask people for favors! If there are one or two individuals or communities you think would be perfect for your idea, consider “pitching” it to them. See if you can get them to use it and if it will stick. If they get excited and ask for more features than you probably have a great idea.
Meet people you don’t know! Now it’s important to be careful in more competative industries, but if you have an idea that you’re burning to get out there, theres nothing stopping you from reaching out to your potential customers in person. You’ll have to do it eventually no matter what, you might as well start early.
You could also run a Survey to see if people want or understand your thinking behind the product.

Step 3 Refine

Be ready to change. Any idea is going to get reinvented many times until it’s a successful invention. So long as you have done step 1 and 2 properly you should know how good in a position you are to monetize your invention, wether it can be a business, and when you should patent your idea.

Best of luck inventing!

Some ideas for being smart about sharing ideas!

You have to understand the risks. The above tactics are almost always necessary to test out how good an idea is, unless you’re already steeped in an industry. But people can copy ideas quick. There are horror stories out there like the selfie-stick KickStarter campaign that was copied and being sold before it even finished being funded. But risks are always going to be part of the challenge of inventing.

There are two strategies you can use to mitigate dangers, but at the end of the day you really can’t protect yourself completely against bad actors, there are cheaters and scammers out there. That said nondisclosure or confidentiality agreements can be a good strategy to protect yourself from potential partners, investors, or distributors who might take your invention for their own.

Another option is to just file a provisional patent, until you have your idea and business model 100% dialed in.

Neither of the above two options are full-proof, but will offer you a bit more protection while your idea is developing in the wild.

The post I have a Great Idea?…So now what? 3 Steps to Take Before Getting a Patent appeared first on Amir Adibi Patent Lawyer.

source https://www.patentlawyer.io/great-idea-now-build-a-business/

2 Strategies for Patent Searches That’ll Save You Time Before You Try to File

So you had your brilliant stroke of genius? The invention that the world has always wanted, but didn’t know it needed hit you in the middle of the night like a thunderbolt and you thought to yourself, this is the one.

We’ve all been there! Invention and reinvention is what America is all about. It’s that entrepreneurial spirit that makes this country so great. I’ve run through the same thought process described above more than a few times. And it’s a common scenario that I hear frequently on calls.

But not so fast, there are a few different factors to consider before you start dreaming about what upholstery pattern you’re going to get in your brand new jet. I’m not saying it can’t happen, but creating, patenting, and launching a successful invention is a huge task. It’s not as simple as just getting a patent, and even filing a patent itself is a complicated process.

In this article I’ll outline two strategies for filing a patent. This process wouldn’t be the same as someone charging for this service would do. But it should help you begin to gauge the uniqueness of your idea, before you attempt to go further in patenting your invention.

There are many successful inventors out there, but what many first time inventors don’t realize is that going from an idea to a successful product is a huge endeavor. Even if you haven’t heard of an idea, someone may have already patented it.

How to Start You Patent Search

Now let this serve as a disclaimer, doing a patent search is complicated. Many patent attorneys offer patent searches as a service, as do I, and there are even professionals and companies that specialize in it. Through years of experience every attorney will have their own process and favorite tools for patent searches. But it’s not just about digging into wether something has been done before, but how the entire scope of similar and related inventions might affect your filing and especially how examiners will look at that information.

In this article, I’ll lay out what you need to know about about the variety of resources out there that can aid in your patent search needs: how to access them, how to navigate them, and the pros and cons of each. I’ll begin this article by moving through the avenues laid out by the USPTO, and follow up by focusing on the top web tools for patent searches. The task of searching for a patent can seem daunting, but with the help of this article, you will have an understanding of how to get started.

The “Un-Official” Way to See if Your Invention has Been Patented

Here’s a basic process that I recommend to new inventors or entrepreneurs just trying to get a sense of the market. Getting excited about your idea is important, but making sure nothing has come before it is also important.

For starters:

Brainstorm some basic terms that describe your invention. Think about what it does and how it does it, as well as the materials it’s made of, or how you’d describe something similar to it. These related terms can help you gauge wether your idea is already in existence somewhere else.
Next do a basic search using Claim Parse or Google Patents While not the official route, either service should give you in depth information about the item your thinking of. A thorough search on either service should turn up any ideas similar to your own, especially if you did a good job coming up with terms in step #1.
If #2 turned up nothing look up the problem your idea is solving. By simply Googling a topic you might find a related product or solution that’s exactly what you’re proposing. Even Pinterest or Reddit could reveal wether something already exists. Generally anywhere people are having conversations about issues might help you find something similar to your idea.
If step 3 turns up nothing I’d recommend searching sites like Amazon, The Grommet, KickStarter, Product Hunt and Indigogo. If your idea exists somewhere, it will probably be on one of these sites.
If you do find you need to speak with a patent attorney to know for sure. But you can search the company name, or inventors name to see if they hold a patent on it.

Now if you find something in the above steps that looks similar to your idea it doesn’t mean it’s been patented, but it may also affect patentability. Again a patent search can only turn up so much unless you have the years of experienced required in patent law to really understand what the existing patent documents out there mean, and how patent examiners might interpret them.

The “Official” Way to Search for a Patent

Now why do I say official? Well for the first time inventor the below steps might be overkill. If you’re simply trying to figure out wether a product has been done before you reach out to an attorney then the “unofficial” process I describe above might be better. Now if you’re an experienced inventor or looking at something in the software of technology realm that’s more complicated, the below process will probably be necessary.

The USPTO website lays out a 7-step guide for running a preliminary patent search using their tools and tools of their European partner, the EPO. Their recommended approach focuses on patent classification searches. Their instructions help you brainstorm terms to search within USPTO website to determine your proposed patents potential Cooperative Patent Classification, and then instruct you in the use of various databases to search patents and patent applications that might legally cover your idea. Click to access the USPTO’s 7-step U.S. Patent search strategy guide handout or the associated computer based training tutorial CBT (computer based training) tutorial with a detailed review of the Seven Step Strategy.

The process is roughly as follows:

Step 1) Start by brainstorming specific terms that describe your invention. Work backwards from the problem it solves and how it’s made. Try to create a list of terms other people would use to describe its purpose and composition.

Step 2) Then Use these terms to find some relevant Cooperative Patent Classification patents. If you enter “CPC Scheme [plus keywords(s) describing invention]” into the search box you should begin to find related inventions. For example if you’re trying to patent a new kind of shoe, searching something like “CPC Scheme shoe” should show some relevant inventions. You could also

Step 3) You can than verify the quality of your search by reviewing the CPC Classifications definition linked to the patent you’ve found.

Step 4) You can then gather patent documents on the PatFT (Patents Full-Text and Image) database . From here you can narrow down the search terms you’re using by going through abstracts and looking at drawings to narrow your search further. Patterns should begin to emerge. At this point you might just find exactly what you were trying to patent, or something similar. Now that said, these things are still open to interpretation and it may still be worth speaking with a professional if you’re serious.

Step 5) Even if you don’t find a smoking a gun you should dig into each of the most related patents and gauge their similarity to yours. Looking at references cited by them or the patent examiner can be a boon for important related patents.

Step 6) Now retrieve published patent applications with the CPC classifications you chose in Step 3 using the AppFT (Applications Full-Text and Image) database. Use the same process I outlined above to narrow down your inventions.

Step 7) Finally broaden yours search to find any additional U.S. patent publications by searching related terms brainstormed in Step 1 within the PatFT, AppFT databases, and non-U.S. patents on the European Patent Office’s Worldwide Espacenet patent database. Finally double check the disclosure of inventions using the Patent and Trademark Resource Center. Since that will also affect your invention.

Here’s a full list of resources recommended by the USPTO, linked to their descriptions on the USPTO website:

Now, you can imagine how complicated the above can get…

It’s only a quick introduction, but the two methods I’ve outlined in this article should help get you started, and at a minimum help you identify if your exact idea has already been done.

The post 2 Strategies for Patent Searches That’ll Save You Time Before You Try to File appeared first on Amir Adibi Patent Lawyer.

source https://www.patentlawyer.io/how-to-search-patents/

Amir Adibi: Bay Area Patent Attorney