Goal for 2012

This next year is the ¨year¨. I´ve have so many good ideas and have never done anything with them. Not anymore. It´s so cheap to get a provisional patent that I intend to get several. Then I´m going to sell the ideas to some big development company and let the royalties roll in!
Hey, if I´m going to have a fantasy, it might as well be a good one. Besides, I haven´t have any better ones lately. All of my ideas are really cool and will make life easier for the people who buy my invention. One of my best ideas is a ¨figure-9¨ to make things easier to tie down for shipping. Oh, wait, someone got there first. OK, I have a neat formula for displacing water and lubricating things. OOPS! Someone else got there first, too! Sheesh! I´d better get a move on.

A little lesson from history

Alexander Graham Bell arguably got the greatest patent of all time when he patented the telephone. You know yourself that telephones are everywhere because communicating with loved ones is our most important desire and the telephone helps us do that. Maybe you didn't know, though, that there was a court battle over rights to the patent. Elisha Gray also invented the telephone at the same time Bell did. Gray lost a bitterly contested court battle ultimately because Bell had better records and could prove he was first. There was something called a patent caveat that could be filed (no longer in use) that allowed someone to prevent someone else from filing first for a period of 90 days. Gray tried to use that but Bell's records were so much better, he lost anyway. Today, the provisional patent functions in a similar way to the caveat but it allows you a full year to get your act together and you can use, "Patent Pending" on your gizmo right away. PLUS, you are protected when negotiating a royalty agreement with someone with the resources to proceed to full patent protection. Right now, each provisional patent application costs $125 and you can prove when you had the idea. Cheap.

Preparing for the worst

Economies around the world are tanking and the US economy is right at the front of the pack. What will you do when you don't have a job and can't get one. Typically, in the good ole' US of A, people turn to self-reliance. It's a good idea to set the stage now if you have a good marketable idea for invention. Getting a patent is a long, expensive process but getting a provisional patent is not. Unless you do it entirely by yourself and study the myriad of forms at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (which does have all the forms needed, guaranteed, just try to figure out which ones to use). Trust me, this is time consuming and you may or may not get it right. There are several options you can use. If you have more money than time, you can hire a lawyer for several hundred dollars and get it done. Or, you can use an online service for a little less money. There are kits available online which reduce the cost to an acceptable level. Search for the best price as there are some really inexpensive kits that are really good. Whatever you do, get a provisional patent on your idea so you can negotiate securely with someone for a royalty agreement without worrying that your idea will be stolen. That is the purpose of a provisional patent. Good luck!