Cheshire Innovation | Resource - Tips For Inventors

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Ten Tips For Inventors based on eighteen years experience

These tips are written from the British perspective. They are passed on as good will, to help fellow inventors. Anyone acting on them must takes full responsibility for their own actions.

Suppress your desire to tell everyone about your great idea
If you go public before filing a patent application, neither you, nor anyone else can file a valid retrospective patent application with the UK Patent Office.

Check that your idea is original
Before investing a lot of time, money and faith in your invention, check that it is original. You can make a good start to this research by doing a key word search using one of the search engines such as Google. You can also do a basic "current awareness" search of patents on the Patent Office databases. These can be accessed on-line at http://www.patent.gov.uk/search. After you have filed a UK patent application, you will be required to pay for the Patent Office to carry out a preliminary check on the novelty of your invention (£130). Later, a more substantive examination will be carried out before your patent is granted (an additional £70). The cautious inventor will not consider their invention to be truly original until they have successfully fought at least one patent infringement case in the courts.

Don't spend beyond your means
Before you become too committed to your invention, draft out a prudent cash flow forecast. writing down the maximum funds that you are prepared to commit to your project at each stage in its development. Don't assume that you can rely on grants or that enthusiastic promises of help from friends will materialise. It doesn't take much courage to take up inventing, but it requires a lot of courage to know when to throw in the towel. Have a look at the Getting The Invention Game In Perspective page, for an idea of the magnitude of the task that you face.

Be aware of the hazards of filing a patent application
The patenting process is very expensive, but the first stage, filing the application is free. If you do all the work yourself, the minimum cost for a UK patent is currently £200, with additional, annual renewal fees being required after four years. There is no such thing as "A World Patent", but there is a complex and expensive system for filing patents in other countries. Go to our Resource Page for web site addresses.
The risks involved if you write your own patent application:
The Patent Office provides very clear instructions on how to write your own application but you should be aware that writing and processing your own application is a high risk business. If your patent description reveals sufficient clues to allow someone else to make your invention but you leave loopholes in the all important Claims part of your application, it may be perfectly legal for someone to make and sell a product using your inventive idea, without infringing on your patent.
Even if you are inventing to help humanity and are not interested in the royalties, a poorly written application is still dangerous because a far thinking manufacturer may be very reluctant to invest capital in developing your invention, if another company can then copy the design with having incurred any research and development costs.
On the other hand, in addition to saving you money, the big plus of writing your own application is that it forces you to think very clearly about what you have invented. Bill Courtney writes his own applications and finds that this is a valuable part of the creative process. As an ex-Physics teacher he has written plenty of technical literature over the years, which is a considerable advantage.

Consider exhibiting your invention
An excellent way of testing potential customer reactions to your invention, is to display it at an inventions fair. Exhibiting inventions is not cheap and you are unlikely to come away from the fair with a contract which will guarantee you fame and fortune. But if you work hard at the market research during the fair and follow up the business contacts you make there, the cost of exhibiting will make good investment sense. Exhibiting will also sharpen up your communication skills.
If nothing else, you might discover that your invention is likely to be a commercial flop, before you lavish too much time & money on it.
The Institute of Patentees and Inventors organise an annual inventions fair. Their web site is www.invent.org.uk/

Learn from others
There's a wealth of information available from libraries, the web and Business Links on how to design leaflets, write business letters, draw up confidentiality agreements and generally put together the promotion tools you will need as an inventor. If you can get to an inventions fair, then use the opportunity to spot good ideas on leaflet design, display stand layout and lighting. If your invention is engineering based, then a useful portal to visit is www.qozi.com/engineering

Adopt an open ended communication strategy
Writing unsolicited letters to companies, offering them your invention rarely leads to success. As your proposal works its way through the company it will probably arrive on the desk of someone whose power base will be threatened by your ingenuity. Its a short journey from their desk top to the dustbin.
Instead, adopt an open ended communication strategy, which aims to reach a champion within the company who will directly benefit by supporting your proposal. Open strategies include exhibiting at innovation fairs, publishing your proposal on an inventors web site such as The Eureka Club www.eureka-club.org/ and attracting media attention. Your local library will have books on public relations, which offer good advice on how to attract media attention.

Create the right image
Sadly, in Britain at least, the word inventor is linked to the word mad and has a low status. On your business cards and headed notepaper consider describing yourself as a designer, engineer or anything else you can reasonably justify. In fact almost any title will do except inventor.

Check out the grant funding
There are a range of grants available to help the small company and private inventor develop their ideas. Even if you don't win a grant, the act of applying for one, will help to focus your mind on the business end of your invention. Your local Business Link will be able to help you. Details of DTI SMART awards and NESTA awards can be found on the following sites: http://www.dti.gov.uk and www.nesta.org.uk Hotfoot, a database of innovation funding schemes can be found at www.j4b.co.uk

Have realistic expectations
The inventing game is more Gothic Horror than Enlightenment Science. If your ambition is to get rich quick, then consider re-mortgaging your house, pawning all your worldly goods and selling your children into slavery. Then blow all your cash in one big splash on The National Lottery- It's a far safer bet than taking up inventing.