Thank you to all of those who attended our Free Event “How to Profit from your Invention Idea.” We had a wonderful turnout and received a lot of useful information. For those of you who couldn’t make it, we have listed some of the main key points that were discussed.Key points taken from Jessica Vann, Client Manager at Innovate Product Design Presentation:When you have a new idea it is important to remember a few things:
- Confidentiality – you want to be careful who you talk to about your idea;
- Uniqueness – most inventors think their idea is unique, but with a little digging you may find that’s not the case;
- Product Research – taking time to look into the existing product market will give you a useful idea of whether your idea is worth taking forward;
- Patent Research – if after doing a product search, you still want to move forward, a patent search establishes background and context for your idea;
- Product Design – a product designer can help turn your thoughts in your head or rough sketches on paper and turn them into a viable product; and
- Protection – the application for Intellectual Property will be the point where your concept becomes something that is formally registered.
Key points taken from Timothy Lohse, Partner at DLA Piper Presentation:What is America Invents Act and what does First-Inventor-To-File mean:
- First to file means, filing quickly;
- If you are going to do a provisional, make sure the provisional has sufficient description so a person of skill in the art can make/use the idea;
- More description is always better than less in a provisional; and
- If you start with a quick and dirty provisional (which is shaky) and then build a house (the full patent) on the provisional, the house is going to be shaky as well and not worth the effort.
Thank you to DLA Piper for giving us the space to hold the event. Thank you to Tim Lohse and Larry Udell for speaking at the event.