Patent Advice 2015IDEA DESIGN STUDIO REVIEWS THAT PATENTS ARE KEY TO SUCCESS FOR INVENTORS AND OUTLINES TIPS TO POINT PEOPLE IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION.

Document the idea:

Inventors must document the idea by writing down all pertinent information in a special book called an inventor’s journal. This type of journal has permanent pages that can’t be taken out. Nor can additional pages be put in. Upon conceiving of an idea, an inventor should log the date and time and have a witness sign the journal.

Research: The inventor should do some

research, say the experts at Idea Design Studio. Research consists of two phases, namely looking to see if a similar patent has been filed before and examining the potential commercial market for the invention. Idea Design Studio reviews that a good place to start is the official U.S. government patent office website http://www.uspto.gov.

Construct a prototype: Inventors should construct a complete

prototype before officially filing the patent paperwork. This step forces the inventor to make certain that the product is a practical one, and didn’t just look good on paper. Idea Design Studio advises all inventors to log everything in the journal as the idea develops. Later on, the inventor’s journal will serve as a reliable legal document that shows what happened and when, from conception to sale of the finished product.

Business plan: Marketing and making a

business plan for the (now patented) invention. In this step, a business plan is created and all the financial details get ironed out. Inventors should be ready to go into business, market, sell and distribute the product. If that is not the case, inventors who do not wish to go into business can license the product to a company that will sell it for them.