Invention help

[Tristan Lall]

Firstly, determine if it's actually valuable—be honest with yourself, and do some hunting around in publicly available patent documents, reference books, etc., to find examples of similar devices that might already exist. But do so discreetly, because if it were valuable, and you described it in public, you could hinder your chances to patent it—incidentally, that means not describing it for us in much detail. (This may be somewhat less of a problem in the U.S., with patents being assigned on a first-to-invent basis, rather than first-to-file, like the rest of the world. But it's still bad practice to discuss an invention, because it instantly limits your options.)

If it really seems unique (and novel, and non-obvious, and useful) then you have one major option for protection: a patent, where you disclose the invention, in return for exclusive rights. (If you really wanted, you could protect it as a trade secret, but for most inventions of a macroscopic, mechanical nature, that's tough to do, since if anyone reverse-engineers it, it's fair game.) To patent it, you need money, and probably a lawyer (i.e. more money). So, once again, ask yourself, is it really worth it? The patent office will take your money, whether or not the invention is actually any good, so you need to be convinced that you've got something of value.

Make sure that you have as much documentation as possible. Date and sign documents as you produce them, and keep meticulous records (photos, receipts, journals, etc.). You'll need that in case your patent is challenged.

To apply for a patent, consult with a patent attorney; your conversations with him are privileged and secure. If he takes your case, he will perform a more thorough patent search, to ensure that the invention is patentable. Assuming that that goes well, it will basically become a matter of describing the invention in broad terms, and submitting that in a patent application. The patent office will review it, likely require some clarifications and/or amendments, and will render a decision. If all goes well, you get the patent, and are in the clear for 17 years. (Other terms apply for international patents—15 years, I think.)

By this point, you'll probably have spent between 3 and 20 thousand dollars on fees (to the USPTO and the lawyer). So your invention had better have the potential to make that back, quickly if possible. In fact, at some point, it may become more valuable as a patent (or provisional patent), rather than a product itself—consider that selling the rights to an invention to a company with the means to produce it can be just as profitable, especially if royalties are agreed upon.

If you can't make a business case for selling out, then you can try to finance it yourself. But this sort of thing is notoriously high-risk; getting loans will be tough, and getting investors depends greatly on the product itself, and their opinion of it. Just for the sake of discussion, you might let us in on the expected saleability of the product (without describing the product itself), just so that we can take a crack at figuring out how much you'd need to sell to break even.