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The Truth About Invention Submission Companies

The sad but simple truth is that many inventors and entrepreneurs have had their share of difficulty with the various invention submission and idea promotion companies out there. You have probably seen them advertised on television, usually in the extremely late night or extremely early morning hours. They promise free information, and tell you that they will help you patent your idea, make your invention and/or market your product. Unfortunately many inventors and entrepreneurs have learned the hard way that these companies all too frequently talk big and perform little or nothing.

For this reason, our website will bring inventors together with other inventors and groups to help pool resources and attract investors, manufactures and resources.


Great idea? What next?

Are you looking for trustworthy help to get your invention developed, patented and on the market? We know how you feel; we have been right there! Now, as successful inventors, we want to help you to find success without being scammed by invention promoters. Developing, protecting and marketing can be confusing, but we are here with answers!

Answers to the most popular invention questions we are asked here and in public. Everyday we get hundreds of emails from people who want to get started inventing. We provide our answers on this website.

Inventing Resources to help you get started. We have tried to provide our recommendations for inventing books, and invention services we believe will help you. Don't miss our book page! We list books and help that could make the difference between getting your product to market or not. Click on the link to the left to see our book list.

Solid inventing advice on how to bring your invention to market. There are dozens of different ways to bring your invention from idea to reality. We are here to help you accomplish that goal.

Inventing News and Information in the Invention Industry. We travel to inventing conventions and meeting year round and talk with some of the biggest inventors in the industry. We will pass this information along to you here.



How To Invent

"I have a great idea, but I don't know how to get started. What do I do first?" There are early steps to take in order to protect your idea and begin developing a prototype. But, even before you do that, we strongly suggest that you look over the criteria listed on the website to help you determine if the idea will be profitable.

Some ideas that are wonderful solutions to a particular problem will not appeal to a wide enough market to make them profitable. Or, they will have too many inherent problems, such as cost of production or consumer education, to make them workable.

Also, a thorough market and patent search is extremely important to make sure the idea is really yours to pursue. Once you have determined that it is a marketable idea and has not already been patented or marketed, it is time to begin with the journal and follow the outlined steps from that point.

We have put together the following steps to How to Invent in order to help you through the invention process.

The steps we took. You may wish to use them as a guideline or blaze your own trail.

Get mentally prepared to Invent
Research your Idea to see if it already exists
Develop a Prototype of your Invention
Get an Invention Evaluation
Protect Your Idea
Determine Your Marketing Plan (License or build a business around your invention?)
Find a Manufacturer who will License your Invention/Patent

Or, find a legitimate licensing agent to help you find a licensee for your product* (We found our licensee ourselves and negotiated the licensing agreement with the help of our attorney.) * If you wish to find a legitimate agent we can help you. Click on the "Licensing Referrals" link on the left and choose the appropriate category from the pull down screen.
 


Patents

Before you file for a patent it is important to understand a little about the process. It is possible that someone has had your idea, patented it and not done anything with it (thus the importance of a thorough patent search). It is also possible that someone may have already filed for a patent on your invention but it is still in the patent pending process. If it has already been patented you can find out about it. If it is in the patent pending process you must decide if you want to proceed with your own patent application hoping that you are the first. Patent pending applications are made public after 18 months if the inventor has not specifically indicated that he/she does not wish to have it made public (and they are not filing for any foreign patents). For the first 18 months after a patent has been applied for the patent pending applications are not made public so there is no way to find out if one is already in the system.

If your idea is great enough, your enthusiasm is great enough, the potential profit margin is great enough and your possible market is large enough, you may decide that you want to try for a patent. Only you can make that judgment call after you have conducted the most thorough patent search you possibly can.

There are a few ways to go about filing for your patent. The first, of course, is to go to a patent attorney. The second is to go to a patent agent. The third is to do it yourself with the help of patent application software or with the help of a book.

Hire a Patent Attorney

Our recommendation is to hire a patent attorney to do it for you if you can. We were really "shoe-stringing" it when we first invented Ghostline and we considered writing our patent application ourselves. Our plan was to find the existing patent that was closest to ours and use it as a sort of template to go by. In our case, anyway, that would have been a big mistake! Our patent attorney was able to write the claims in such a way that it made our patent much stronger than it would have been if we had done it ourselves. Scrimping on the attorney fees would have cost us dearly in the value of our final patent (assuming that would have been able to navigate our way through the process at all!).

When people hear that for a patent attorney to file for a utility patent often costs between $8,000.00-$10,000.00 it can be discouraging. That is a lot of money to come up with. What most people don't understand is that you do not have to come up with the total amount at the start. We paid around $2,500.00 to start and then paid other fees as they were due. It is our understanding that most patent attorneys allow clients to pay fees as they come due and as work progresses on the patent. Many patent attorneys do not charge at all for the first visit with them when they evaluate the patent ability of your invention. Check to be certain that this is their policy, however, before scheduling an appointment.
 


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Try Dirt Cheap Patents. Contact them by clicking here. They may be able to save you thousands of dollars on your patent.

Use a Patent Agent

The second way to file for a patent is to use a patent agent. They are as qualified as patent attorneys to draw up and file your patent application (Patent Agents and Patent Attorneys have to pass the same test on their competency). Patent agents are not attorneys, however and could not represent you in court. Patent agents are usually substantially less expensive than patent attorneys.

Do it Yourself
The third way to file for your patent is to do it yourself. You could check out the patent writing software. There is a user-friendly software program that guides you through the steps and even has a patent attorney look over your application before you submit it to the U. S. Patent and Trademark Office. You can find it listed on the UIAUSA.com website. We list another patent writing software, Patent Ease, on our Helpful Books page.

Finally, you may choose to write and file for your patent yourself. If you choose this last option we would encourage you to get the book Patent It Yourself by David Pressman. That is not the only book that would be helpful. There are many others as well. Also, if you do choose to patent it yourself we would suggest that you have an attorney look over your application before you submit it. They will often do that for a reasonable fee.

Provisional Patent Application
If your purpose in filing for a patent is to obtain the "patent pending" status you may want to file a provisional patent application instead of filing an application for a regular utility patent. It costs only $100 to file a provisional patent application and the format is much looser than it is for filing for a regular utility patent. Basically a provisional patent application will "hold your place in line" at the patent office by allowing you the earliest filing date possible. It will never result in an actual patent.
 
Within one year after you file your provisional patent application, you must file for a regular patent or lose the advantage of the earlier filing date.

Provisional patent applications are not even looked at by the examiners at the patent office. Provisional patent applications are very attractive to some inventors because they allow the inventor to have as early a filing date as possible and it allows them to list their product as "patent pending." That gives the inventor one year in which to find a company to license his/her product without going to the expense of filing for a utility patent.

***IMPORTANT NOTE***

It is very important NOT to divulge your invention to anyone (without a nondisclosure agreement) because the USPTO has very strict regulations about when you can file for a patent. You have ONE YEAR from the time that you first make your invention public (either by showing it to someone without a nondisclosure agreement or by offering it for sale or public use). The USPTO is VERY STRICT about that. The one-year clock starts running the moment you "make your invention public" and if you apply for the patent one year and one day after that they will disallow it. DON'T LET THE CLOCK RUN OUT ON YOUR INVENTION!

Rates vary widely for writing Provisional Patent Applications. . Most attorneys and agents charge between $800 and $2,400 to write the provisional patent application.
 
Click " Non-Disclosure " to find a sample that you may print out.

Since laws may vary slightly from state to state or country to country it is always wise to have a local attorney look over the agreement before using it.

For your guide to performing your own FREE preliminary patent search click here.

24/7 Patent & Trademark Information line provided by Straussberger & Price of San Antonio. The number is 210 250 6027. The information provided (i.e. the 12 most common misconceptions about patents) is well worth the cost of the telephone call.

NOTE: You may perform free online patent searches at either http://www.uspto.gov/ (The official website of the United States Patent and Trademark office. Google now has a new user-friendly patent search engine that you can find at http://www.google.com/patents.

Leave it to Google to come up with an easier way to search patents! Hooray!




Looking for new products, new methods, new ideas ?Free Patent Auction lists numerous truly innovative ideas (secured by patent rights) which are available for sale or licensing. The broad range of inventions for sale touches upon all fields of industry. You can freely browse through our entire catalog, starting from the menu on the left. If you need more information about any specific patent, you can contact the inventor directly through this website.

Inventors can list their patented inventions (or patent pending) for free. We encourage inventors from all countries to submit their inventions, provided that they have applied for patent protection. Listing your patent on Free Patent Auction is very easy and completely free.

 




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