Month: September 2009
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Inventor Paranoia
Inventors are frequently afraid someone will steal their idea. Some paranoia is good. Too much is crippling. You have to find a balance between protecting your idea and being able to get your idea incorporated into a tangible product that you can get to the marketplace. Here are some guidelines: 1. You can talk in…
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The Greatest Challenge
The greatest challenge for an inventor is money. You have to have money to invent. No one invests in an idea. You have to have intellectual property protection and a working prototype or a very detailed 3D-CAD drawing. Unless you are working for a company and invent under its name, you have to be able…
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Fatal Mistakes
The most tragic part of inventing is when an inventor with a reasonably good idea makes a serious or fatal error. I see it happen all too often. For instance, getting a patent before you know if your invention can be made at a price someone will pay just means you’ll end up with very…
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Can You Sell It?
One of the most critical steps in the inventing process is establishing market viability. Sometimes people think they have a great idea, but the consumer doesn’t agree. And, after all, if no one will pay for it, why bother, unless, of course, you have lots of money to burn. Establishing market viability includes obtaining favorable…
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Invention & Innovation — A U.S. Competitive Advantage in a Changing World
Current economic crisis aside, as we are all well aware, the world economy is changing fundamentally at a dizzying pace. Countries like Brazil, Russia, India and China (the “BRIC” Block that we hear so much about these days) are growing their economies at double digit rates, while the U.S. and the various state economies are…