While most inventions and ideas don’t make money for the inventor, knowing what to do when one finally gets a promising idea can benefit all involved.
Most ideas will drain the inventor’s resources both in terms of money and time. However, the following tips from a top NY law firm can help inventors get started on the right path.
How to Protect a Promising Idea/Invention
At one point or another, an inventor will stumble on a promising idea and will need to protect it from unscrupulous individuals. But how do they go about it?
1. Ensure they Invent In their Area of Expertise
According to a top NY law firm, inventors who invent in their areas of expertise or hire people with experience in these areas have better chances of succeeding.
Their expertise allows them to understand the target market much better. For those that lack experience, it’s best to partner with those that do.
Partnerships improve their chances of identifying and protecting ideas that appear promising.
Related: 4 Benefits of Opting for Family Lawyers
2. Set Up a Budget to Use in Protecting the Idea
There’s nothing more frustrating than an inventor attempting to protect their idea without access to enough cash reserves.
Protecting an idea will see the inventor go through various stages, including patent-pending, before getting to the patented stage.
Running out of money midway will cause an inventor to abandon a highly promising project due to the frustration brought about by rising legal costs.
As such, inventors need to understand that things won’t always go the way they expect, hence the need to set aside enough money from the get-go.
3. They Need to Prepare a Business Plan
A typical business plan highlights the items that the inventor needs to consider before spending a considerable amount of resources on their innovations.
It should indicate how the inventor intends to monetize their idea, including how they will justify all the money spent on the invention.
The business plan is the first step towards monetizing any idea.
If an investor can’t show on paper how their idea will make them money, then it doesn’t have any chance of surviving in the real world.
A business plan helps an inventor and their partners to understand all the costs associated with monetizing their invention, e.g.,
- Manufacturing costs
- Distribution mediums
- Marketing and advertising costs
- Time and effort required to actualize the plan
How Inventors Can Find Suitable Patent Lawyers?
Any investor who wants to receive competent representation from a patent agent or patent attorney should avoid coming off as combative, crazy, or out of touch with reality.
To find a top NY law firm to represent them during the patent proceedings, they need to:
1. Admit they Need the Services of a Patent Attorney
Inventors need the services offered by an attorney, and not just any attorney, but a patent attorney.
They have to find a patent attorney who is qualified, experienced and registered to practice their trade before the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
Related: NFL Stars That Became Entrepreneurs
2. Shop Around to Find the Best Law Firm
It’s always a good idea to shop around when searching for a patent attorney. However, inventors need to exercise caution when doing so to avoid alienating competent firms.
They need to start by preparing a reasonable budget. The attorneys they will approach should provide them with an idea of how much the process will cost.
Competent attorneys will provide the inventor with a legitimate plan of what they will do and then provide them with a quote.
3. Focus on Attorneys with Expertise in the Invention’s Area of Focus
Patent applications serve as legal and technical documents. For this reason, any attorney that the inventor is considering should have a background in the said area.
They need to be able to fully understand the invention even at its most technical level to enable them to draft documents that can describe what the invention does.
Many NY law firms offering patent services provide profile information on their websites to allow inventors to know the areas the lawyers have specialized in.
4. Schedule a Meeting with the Attorney
Often, the attorney an inventor meets on their first meeting with a law firm isn’t the attorney who will draft the patent application.
Inventors shouldn’t hesitate to ask to meet the attorney who will do all the legwork. They should use the first meeting to confirm that the said attorney understands their technology.
A qualified attorney with the right technical background will know which questions to ask and demonstrate an understanding of how the invention is supposed to work.
