Start a Business or Bust

A significant fraction of inventors fail themselves long before they seek advice regarding protecting their ideas.  More specifically, these inventors show up with no business plan and, often, no plan to start a business.  Instead, they believe that someone else will launch their idea for them.  Real life does not work that way.

For one thing, no one has as much confidence in your idea as you do.  These others were not present at its conception and did not participate in that necessity-to-invention transformation that gripped you.  Nor can they see all of the possibilities for it that you can.  Moreover, from their perspective they are being asked to take all of the risk, but share the reward. 

Instead of that approach, these inventors should graduate from mere inventor to Entrepreneur (caps intentional).  When you show up with prototypes and a business plan, others will take you more seriously.  Also, if you are actually out in your market, generating revenue, and honing your marketing plan you might find that you don’t need nearly as much help as you initially feared. 

That is not to say that your path will be easy or that you won’t need to make a significant investment.  But, there is no substitute for success.  And even a bit of success on your own will help convince others to assume some of the (now reduced) risk in return for a share of the potential rewards.

Of course you will want to have an Intellectual Property plan in place before you begin your marketing and sales activities.  The reason (as this blog as bemoaned repeatedly) is that the America Invents Act probably eliminated the one-year grace period for filing a patent application following an offer for sale of a product/service incorporating an invention.

We at the Villhard Patent Group would be happy to discuss your intellectual property plan with you.  For more information about us, see www.villhardpatents.com or contact us at contact@villhardpatents.com or 512-897-0399.