The inquiries I receive the most often from people who have ideas for new products relate to theft, by far. Forget testing. Forget marketability. Forget strategy. I hear fear, followed by more fear. How can I protect my invention? Will a patent stop my idea from being...
Non-Disclosure Agreements Can Be Powerful, But Only If You Know How to Use Them
To protect your creativity, you need to act strategically. That's really what it comes down to. There are no silver bullets, no magical one-size-fits-all solutions. And that's okay. Because the good news is, there are a lot of tools at your disposal to help you!...
Want to Truly Protect Your Great Idea? Try ‘Stealing’ It From Yourself
Anyone who has had an idea has worried someone is going to take it. In my opinion, this fear is overblown. I get it. Fear is a powerful motivator. It unfortunately prevents many of us from ever taking action. I don't think companies steal ideas, though. I think they...
Potential Licensees Can Help You Fend Off Me-Too Products
I could tout the benefits of licensing product ideas all day long. Sometimes it feels like I do. As a creative, licensing has always been attractive to me. I enjoy improving upon existing products and making people smile. I’m much less interested in the practical...
5 Crucial Things to Understand About Searching for Prior Art
Studying the marketplace is a critical step of the product development process. The only way to invent an improvement to an existing product that offers a benefit consumers desire and are willing to pay for is to truly understand and have analyzed the landscape of the...
What to Do When You Discover a Product Idea Similar to Yours
Is your idea original? Probably not--and that's fine. More than fine, actually. Let me explain. When you begin thinking about whether or not your idea merits filing intellectual property to protect it, the first thing you will want to do is conduct a prior art search....
How to License an Idea Without a Patent
Most products available on the market today are not protected by intellectual property. In other words, they aren't patented. That makes sense. It takes years--easily as many as four--for an idea to work its way through the patent examination process. Waiting for a...
5 Steps to Safeguard Your Product From Patent Theft
When I came up with the idea for a new rotating label technology, I had a hunch it was powerful enough that someone might try to steal it. I was right. Not long after I sent samples to a major company, they came out with a similar product. I had luckily filed...