Thoughts on inventing, patents and marketing

"Electricity is not an invention" I never said that electricity was an invention. The machine that produces the electricity is indeed an invention. I think you nee to read my post again. The people who harnessed that electricity to give us light bulbs, electric motors, refrigeration moved us into the space age.

What's more impressive the space shuttle or the SR-71? They are both very impressive machines, and I have an enormous amount of respect the men who built these machines. By the way I think the SR-71 had some primitive computers onboard.

Sorry about the gererator, my error.

Shuttle or SR-71. Sr-71. Saturn V had 7,500,000 lbs of thrust, Shuttle had 1,000,000. Shuttle was son of SarurnV. My$.02
You should hear the Saturn V under full power test.

Sr-71 had computers on board, it was designed by Kelly Johnson and crew with slide rule.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a gear head, not a computer nerd, or anything like that. I like manual machines, and I never even tried to run a CNC machine. But these CNC mills, and lathes have been the only thing saving the U.S. manufacturing base, from being totally outsourced. I'm from Detroit, and people bitched when robots started replacing men on the assembly lines. But how efficient would auto factories be today, without robots? The big 3 would have been bankrupt years ago, if they did not adopt new technologies like computer controlled robots.

I think everyone here shares a common interest in manual machinery. We all like making chips, and using our creativeness to invent new things. The really sad thing is that allot of this knowledge is being lost. The vast majority of kids coming out of high school, never even had a shop class. If we don't educate the next generation Americans to be machinist, we will lose our standing in the global economy.

If it wasn't for Tom Edison, we would have to watch TV by candle light.
Regards Walt..

" What is the single most important invention in the world?"
The Thermos - It keeps hot stuff hot or cold stuff cold. But how does it know the difference?

Actually, the single most important invention ever, was the 1st Tool ever invented, whatever that was. a Club? That started the process of analytical thinking and solving problems with new and improved tools or devices...

My vote for the three most important inventions- remember, none of these occur in nature, all three were invented and further refined by humans, all are found pretty desirable by every culture, and all go back to about the time we became "civilised".

Beer
Bread
Sausage

Yep, they all seem simple to you, now- but before they existed, how obvious were they?

Nope, not machines. But a part of my life every day, and without em, how many machines would ever have been built?

I've given hundreds(or thousands) of rides with my woodburning steam outboard boat. One of the most common comments is that I should patent it. I'm not sure there is anything to patent, and if there is, is it worth the time and money?

I'm not sure about patents. I heard somewhere if you change the design 10%, you can copy it. The "Walkman" was patented. I had an idea for a motorcycle handlebar throttle tube mounted on bearings...... Perfect feel, no jiggle. Someone did it just recently. I think agressive marketing and "Lead Name" branding would do it all without a patent. But I didn't have resources for that.

I have a new idea, and I think a lot of us that tinker with guns, dirtbikes, watercraft, ect. have some new idea on the way these things can be improved. THINK NEGATIVE. "This sucks" and can be improved. Someone once said:
"The world belongs to the dissatisfied." People who improve things. How true.

After many years of watching people walk into my shop with dead grandma's $5k and dream of success, I became disillusioned with the idea of striking it rich with an invention.

I apprenticed under German WWII survivors who spent their spare time inventing. They all used one of three approaches.

#1 was to keep inventing neat stuff and get hooked up with a good patent attorney to research and do his applications. The inventor would just keep on inventing and patenting stuff. He would watch the trade magazines and wait until some huge company would try to market his invention or something similar enough to warrant a call from his attorney. This was usually enough to get a large "go away" check to buy the patent rights from him. A few of these and you can retire, but you need to start young.

#2 is to invent it, patent it, then find a deep pocket company to buy the invention from you. This is the least painful and gets you the quickest rewards.

#3 is to spend all of your cash and time inventing, patenting, prototyping, marketing, tooling, distributing, shipping and paying liability insurance. This usually amounts to the inventor riding his dream to the grave and leaving his heirs with the bills.

Remember that the Chinese could care less about you and your patent and if you are a nuicance they will just market your idea over seas. Good luck sueing outside the US. In this day and age, #2 is the best tactic. Use it as a quick hit and run. Take what you can and move on to the next one.

Always remember what made Walt Disney so successful. He never looked in his rear view mirror and stated that he could "invent it faster than they could steal it"

Best of luck!

I have (along with a partner) a patent as well. Heh, it's looks really nice hanging in a frame on my office wall. $100K + to the lawyers and will never realize a profit, but it was fun dreaming of hitting it big.

Hi, I'm Edgar Castelo, Inventor, and you needn't despair, there are some guys that can help, in these 3 sites:

There's the Inventor's Garage,
http://www.inventorsgarage.com/forum/

The Lone Inventor,
http://www.loneinventor.com/

And East London Inventor's Club,
http://www.eastlondoninventorsclub.com/default.htm

Sites run for Inventors, by Inventors, and believe me, they will happily help you, and greatly appreciate Machinist's input into those said Sites!

I've made a Site with tips for Prototype builders, and this Practical Machinist Site's going to be the latest add-on, 'cos we Inventors are always looking for Machining tips, guess it's only fair to tell you there's help for Inventors, in return!

My Site's
http://build.your.own.prototypes.googlepages.com/How-tos.htm
, so if you want, take a look and tell me what you think!

...And here's Inventor's resources:

http://inventionshowcase.com/resources.htm

Conventional wisdom is that a patent is not worth having unless you have several million dollars to defend it....

There are volumes of patents that have zero commercial value. Three of my four were rendered obsolete by changing times.

"Food for thought: What is the single most important invention in the world?"

There are as many opinions on this subject as there are individuals willing to contemplate it. I say the plow shear rates at the top or very near the top.

Ron

Having a patent has nothing to do with either gaining revenue, or preventing people from copying it.
Both of above involve lawyers, litigation, and resources.

A patent can be gotten cheaply, or expensively.
Neither has any relation whatsoever to the quality of the patent or the invention.
Or its commercial success.

The products will be made worldwide, if they are any good.
Thus you need to have worldwide patent coverage, and worldwide litigation capacity.

A patent is a license to sue, no more, no less.
Today, its unlikely most companies will buy a patent or rights to it.
Something similar exists or can be made to fit, somewhere in the world.

Unless you can also succesfully sue there, there is no commercial motive for paying for the patent.

I saw a case here in Spain, where the distributors blatantly copied a somewhat succesfull invetors product (and brand and trademark etc etc).
So what.
After 6 years, 300k in legal expenses, they are still copying it, and the inventor has gained nothing. He has gained 3 court cases so far.
In many places in the world, just because you win a court case, means nothing.

The other party just keeps copying, under a new name and company if necessary.
A new company is set up in 3 weeks for 2000$.

Just something to think about, and take into account.

You hypotethical thingamajic is then imported by a major marketer, from a (chinese, spanish whatever) middleman, to a wholesaler, to a retailer.
If the retailer does not care, you cannot efficiently stop them through litigation.

Often, the retailer may own the middlemen at the other end.

Saturate the market before competition can cash in.

As an inventor with 5 patents which you can review on my Linkedin profile, be wary of the long and expensive process of getting a patent which can take 10 years and up to 100 grand. Google infringed on my patents and we went to court---another 3 years and over 100 grand since Google has tons of money and we finally received a licensing agreement. If you do not have deep pockets, the big companies will bury you to take your idea. Also, another great source for OEM manufacturers is IQS Directory | Manufacturing Companies | Industrial Supply

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