As the holiday season is upon us, we can’t help but think of all the innovative and creative minds that are behind those products that are flying off the store shelves as people continue to cross items off of their holiday wish lists.
So often, inventors with big ideas get hung up on the need for patents before a project even goes from ideation to a working concept model for testing.
Sure, in a blog that we wrote a few weeks ago, we put the spotlight on Lowell Wood, an inventor who surpassed Thomas Edison as America’s leading patent holder with 1,085 patents to his name.
Despite that amazing fact, today, we are going to discuss the topic of why some say it’s not always important to aspire to be a patent holder and to rather, aspire to see ideas in the marketplace!
Every year, hundreds of thousands of patented ideas never make it to the market. As we mentioned before, sometimes people get too caught up in “protecting” their idea, more than they are concerned with developing their idea.
Fear is often the motivator for people to jump right in to patenting their idea before it’s ready for that step. As we always say, invention ideas change over time; an initial product idea can have multiple iterations before its design is finalized.
Now, we aren’t discounting the value of a patent; after all, it is an important tool. But according to Tamara Monosoff, established author and contributing writer to Entrepreneur Magazine, it’s not the fast pass to success. Monosoff suggests that steps should be taken to validate your product and its potential success before a patent is filed.
That’s why she finds it important for a person, before he or she even considers patenting an idea, to ask themselves important questions regarding their invention idea. These questions may include:
- Can the product be manufactured?
- What’s the need for this idea?
- Is this invention idea marketable?
To that point, Monosoff suggests that before you pursue your idea and protect it, you should do your own research to see if your product is needed on the market and if your idea has the potential to be a viable business opportunity.
In the end, once you’ve done your research and determined whether or not there are roadblocks to your success, you can then ask yourself the question, “To patent or not to patent?”
If you have a new product idea that you would like to pursue – Let us help you with your idea!
Copyright Davison, 2015
The opinions of Tamara Monosoff are hers and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Davison. Davison does not offer or provide research or opinions concerning market potential or the viability of a business opportunity.
Sources:
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/80088
Image:
http://immortaldc.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/patent-approved.jpg