How do I sell an invention?
December 15, 2014 8:14 PM Subscribe
I come from both a design and engineering background, although never got to do design+engineering for a living. But I have lots if ideas for inventions that I think are viable. However, I have no interest in going on "Dragon's Den" or similar. I don't want to manufacture these devices or run a manufacturing company. I'm not a businessman, I'm an ideas man.
I can express my ideas in a way an engineer would understand due to my background. How do I sell my inventions to companies?
Write it down. Details. Date every page. If you do hit an idea that is patentable that notebook could be worth millions. Only if it's written down. Good, great, crazy, stupid, get it written.
posted by sammyo at 8:37 PM on December 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by sammyo at 8:37 PM on December 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
Selling one's intellectual property is done by licensing, which is selling your idea to a company or entrepreneur who takes on the development and actualization of your idea. Assuming you already know your market and whether there is any competition for your niche, the first thing you need to do is figure out if your idea is patentable. Is it unique, or has somebody else already patented it?
It's best to go as far as you can in terms of actually making something (a prototype, a beta version, a model, a blueprint, or all or some of those) before you present it to potential partners, licensees, venture capitalists, etc. Of course, the more complete and professional your approach, the better.
Licensing your ideas is a long, drawn-out process which requires a lot of marketing and network savvy. If you're not a PR-ish person, you may want to hook up with someone who is, a person who can convey your ideas to potential manufacturers. Flabdablet is quite right in that you need something concrete to show anyone with whom you want to go into business.
If you pursue this, make sure you learn all the legalities involved. If I were doing this, I'd engage an attorney, a marketer/networker, and a financial consultant. And I'd interview at least three people who had done it successfully, and read a lot of books on the process before I even talked to a potential licensee.
posted by Beethoven's Sith at 8:39 PM on December 15, 2014
It's best to go as far as you can in terms of actually making something (a prototype, a beta version, a model, a blueprint, or all or some of those) before you present it to potential partners, licensees, venture capitalists, etc. Of course, the more complete and professional your approach, the better.
Licensing your ideas is a long, drawn-out process which requires a lot of marketing and network savvy. If you're not a PR-ish person, you may want to hook up with someone who is, a person who can convey your ideas to potential manufacturers. Flabdablet is quite right in that you need something concrete to show anyone with whom you want to go into business.
If you pursue this, make sure you learn all the legalities involved. If I were doing this, I'd engage an attorney, a marketer/networker, and a financial consultant. And I'd interview at least three people who had done it successfully, and read a lot of books on the process before I even talked to a potential licensee.
posted by Beethoven's Sith at 8:39 PM on December 15, 2014
If you have already looked up the prior art for your products, you should try and patent it. It is very expensive ($4K per application) and even big companies I worked at tried to limit what patents were being submitted. Patents must be broad enough and it is a different skill to write them up.
If you don't have a prototype, your ideas aren't really with that much. I am an engineer but 'selling' a product to an engineer is really a waste of time if you want it made a product. They'll understand but what it takes to make an idea into a viable (sales wise) is completely a different ball game.
Good luck!
posted by savitarka at 8:41 PM on December 15, 2014
If you don't have a prototype, your ideas aren't really with that much. I am an engineer but 'selling' a product to an engineer is really a waste of time if you want it made a product. They'll understand but what it takes to make an idea into a viable (sales wise) is completely a different ball game.
Good luck!
posted by savitarka at 8:41 PM on December 15, 2014
Ideas ain't worth shit. Even patented ideas aren't worth much. You can't even get an injunction to stop someone selling your patented idea unless you yourself are working on selling it, too (you just get to fuck around in court until you run out of money).
You need to do the engineering and manufacturing before your idea is worth money. I say this as someone with dozens of patents, some of which did eventually sell for a lot of money (but only after years of engineering).
posted by ryanrs at 8:44 PM on December 15, 2014 [15 favorites]
You need to do the engineering and manufacturing before your idea is worth money. I say this as someone with dozens of patents, some of which did eventually sell for a lot of money (but only after years of engineering).
posted by ryanrs at 8:44 PM on December 15, 2014 [15 favorites]
Ideas are cheap. There's tons of people who are basically overflowing with them. Some ideas are patentable, others are not. But patenting an idea is reasonably expensive and time-consuming. It's fairly unlikely you'll be able to make a profit this way, though. Because you only make money when some business decides they want to do your idea and pays you license fees. If they decide it because you pitched the idea to them, then you're doing even more legwork, and they often will decide to deliberately avoid your idea because of the patent issues. If they thought of it independently, and develop it into a product, then you might be able to get something out of them, but expect a long and expensive legal process. Even if your patent is freaking bulletproof, it makes sense for them to try to wear you down since they can throw money at it more easily than you can.
Basically the answer is: generally this doesn't happen. If you develop your ideas, build prototypes, and stuff like that, then you could conceivably patent the patentable stuff, and shop around to companies to bring them to market. But that's a lot more work, and no guarantee of success either.
If you want to make any significant money off inventing, you have to either be extremely lucky or spend a huge chunk of your life working on it and still be pretty lucky.
posted by aubilenon at 8:48 PM on December 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
Basically the answer is: generally this doesn't happen. If you develop your ideas, build prototypes, and stuff like that, then you could conceivably patent the patentable stuff, and shop around to companies to bring them to market. But that's a lot more work, and no guarantee of success either.
If you want to make any significant money off inventing, you have to either be extremely lucky or spend a huge chunk of your life working on it and still be pretty lucky.
posted by aubilenon at 8:48 PM on December 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
I know a guy who basically does this.
He's American (and white), but he lived in Shenzhen for 8 years to learn how the Chinese supply chain works. Oh and he has a BS in mechanical engineering and an MS in electrical engineering.
He basically sketches awesome stuff, then travels to China to work his contacts to try to get it manufactured. He has done maybe 15 projects -- 2 or 3 at a time. His most successful product so far was a very unique flashlight that sold 10,000 units. Most have been total failures.
He's a great guy and a blast to talk to, but he does have a day job at an established company, so this isn't a path to riches or anything.
posted by miyabo at 8:59 PM on December 15, 2014 [7 favorites]
He's American (and white), but he lived in Shenzhen for 8 years to learn how the Chinese supply chain works. Oh and he has a BS in mechanical engineering and an MS in electrical engineering.
He basically sketches awesome stuff, then travels to China to work his contacts to try to get it manufactured. He has done maybe 15 projects -- 2 or 3 at a time. His most successful product so far was a very unique flashlight that sold 10,000 units. Most have been total failures.
He's a great guy and a blast to talk to, but he does have a day job at an established company, so this isn't a path to riches or anything.
posted by miyabo at 8:59 PM on December 15, 2014 [7 favorites]
If you are not entrepreneurial you need to work for a company where you will get an opportunity to work on R&D that puts you at the intersection of engineering and design.
posted by quadog at 9:01 PM on December 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by quadog at 9:01 PM on December 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
Nthing what others have said about the value of mere ideas. I do not know the OP's experience or background, but nobody is going to hand you big wads of cash in exchange for you working with them to patent things.
Have you attempted to search (via Google or the USPTO) to see if any of your ideas are unique? If not, you really should. I remember when I was just out of college and discovered that my company wanted us to patent our ideas, and I had this great idea about keyboards. I wrote it up - and got back a stack of Prior Art that was about 18" tall (this was circa 1986 - paper was king).
I don't want to talk you out of it - for all I know you've got a practical system for matter transmission, and I'd really like to see that. But these days, being an "ideas man" isn't enough - you need to have the drive and the technical chops to actually implement stuff. And even then, it's becoming less and less common for really worthwhile things to be developed by a Lone Inventor. It's a matter of teamwork - and getting on a good team can be a challenge in itself.
posted by doctor tough love at 9:37 PM on December 15, 2014
Have you attempted to search (via Google or the USPTO) to see if any of your ideas are unique? If not, you really should. I remember when I was just out of college and discovered that my company wanted us to patent our ideas, and I had this great idea about keyboards. I wrote it up - and got back a stack of Prior Art that was about 18" tall (this was circa 1986 - paper was king).
I don't want to talk you out of it - for all I know you've got a practical system for matter transmission, and I'd really like to see that. But these days, being an "ideas man" isn't enough - you need to have the drive and the technical chops to actually implement stuff. And even then, it's becoming less and less common for really worthwhile things to be developed by a Lone Inventor. It's a matter of teamwork - and getting on a good team can be a challenge in itself.
posted by doctor tough love at 9:37 PM on December 15, 2014
I would echo what other have said, ideas without execution are worthless. Put another way, lots of people have great ideas, that's not the hard part. Everything else is the hard part.
In the USA patent law changed in March 2013. It is not longer "first to invent" it is now "first to file". So just keeping great ideas in a notebook with dated pages against the time they might be successful is a waste of time. You need to file the patent to get protection.
posted by Long Way To Go at 10:06 PM on December 15, 2014 [4 favorites]
In the USA patent law changed in March 2013. It is not longer "first to invent" it is now "first to file". So just keeping great ideas in a notebook with dated pages against the time they might be successful is a waste of time. You need to file the patent to get protection.
posted by Long Way To Go at 10:06 PM on December 15, 2014 [4 favorites]
Even though you do not want to appear on it "Dragon's Den" is an instructive TV show in this respect since it shows so many examples of people getting the process of pitching ideas instructively wrong. There are those with crappy ideas that waste vast amounts of effort and money developing them; there are those with OK ideas who seem to massively over-estimate their commercial worth; there are people to come to the table with something decent but who fail because of their presentation or negotiation skills. The IT Crowd summarised this pretty well. - Youtube will also turn up many much sadder samples of delusional pitches.
To succeed, I believe that you need a sparring partner with whom to develop your ideas. Somebody who will help you to rapidly throw out ideas which are are not viable and hone those which might be.
posted by rongorongo at 12:12 AM on December 16, 2014 [1 favorite]
To succeed, I believe that you need a sparring partner with whom to develop your ideas. Somebody who will help you to rapidly throw out ideas which are are not viable and hone those which might be.
posted by rongorongo at 12:12 AM on December 16, 2014 [1 favorite]
Hey there. I'm a little tired of hearing everyone say that ideas are worthless. Maybe it would be difficult for most people to market their ideas, but that certainly doesn't mean it's impossible for you.
Since AskMe isn't helping very much, maybe read a few how-to-market-your-invention books or web documents -- being very skeptical of all of them -- then call up a patent attorney, get a referral to a more niche patent attorney, and don't be dissuaded when that person also tells you that ideas are not worth anything. He's an attorney, he's not in the buiness of making things, but he can maybe answer some of the very specific questions you'll have by that point (especially about protecting yourself), or refer you to someone who can.
posted by amtho at 4:14 AM on December 16, 2014 [1 favorite]
Since AskMe isn't helping very much, maybe read a few how-to-market-your-invention books or web documents -- being very skeptical of all of them -- then call up a patent attorney, get a referral to a more niche patent attorney, and don't be dissuaded when that person also tells you that ideas are not worth anything. He's an attorney, he's not in the buiness of making things, but he can maybe answer some of the very specific questions you'll have by that point (especially about protecting yourself), or refer you to someone who can.
posted by amtho at 4:14 AM on December 16, 2014 [1 favorite]
Hey there. I'm a little tired of hearing everyone say that ideas are worthless.
Since the OP has both a design and an engineering background, he presumably is able to specify both the design and the implementation of his inventions.
Now OP, what I would do is approach a local university and see if you can find someone there who is able to implement a well-specified design as a prototype. I offer this suggestion because it's what I would actually do/have done, not because it's the best possible way.
After that, it depends, but you will have a working prototype that you can market. That will be progress.
posted by tel3path at 5:55 AM on December 16, 2014
Since the OP has both a design and an engineering background, he presumably is able to specify both the design and the implementation of his inventions.
Now OP, what I would do is approach a local university and see if you can find someone there who is able to implement a well-specified design as a prototype. I offer this suggestion because it's what I would actually do/have done, not because it's the best possible way.
After that, it depends, but you will have a working prototype that you can market. That will be progress.
posted by tel3path at 5:55 AM on December 16, 2014
I've been doing what you've asked about for the last 20 years. Here's the answer I gave last time someone asked about how to do it.
posted by ericc at 8:53 AM on December 16, 2014 [4 favorites]
posted by ericc at 8:53 AM on December 16, 2014 [4 favorites]
I'm a Vice President of Engineering for a company doing about $6Bn annually of business. My job is managing engineering teams who develop new products. I've been leading engineering teams for 20+ years and have also led marketing.
When we start developing products, we decide on a target market, then assess customer needs and competition, and then develop innovative products. Assuming the product has some hardware content, we need to evaluate the target price of the product, the cost to build the product, and make sure we can make money including the cost of developing the product. Then, we need to put together marketing material and find a sales channel for the product. Finally, once we start taking orders, we need to make sure we can build and support the product. Often customers want enhancements or we want to have our revenue stream continue, so we start on the next project which is often an enhancement of the current product.
Certainly patents play a role here in terms of protecting our intellectual property, but they are a piece of the whole process.
If I had a friend who had a patentable idea and wanted to make money from it, I would encourage them to think through the potential customers for products using that idea, what alternative those customers have, and how many customers of that type there might be. A good book on this topic is Value Proposition Design. You can download a free sample from the authors' website.
posted by elmay at 11:32 AM on December 16, 2014 [7 favorites]
When we start developing products, we decide on a target market, then assess customer needs and competition, and then develop innovative products. Assuming the product has some hardware content, we need to evaluate the target price of the product, the cost to build the product, and make sure we can make money including the cost of developing the product. Then, we need to put together marketing material and find a sales channel for the product. Finally, once we start taking orders, we need to make sure we can build and support the product. Often customers want enhancements or we want to have our revenue stream continue, so we start on the next project which is often an enhancement of the current product.
Certainly patents play a role here in terms of protecting our intellectual property, but they are a piece of the whole process.
If I had a friend who had a patentable idea and wanted to make money from it, I would encourage them to think through the potential customers for products using that idea, what alternative those customers have, and how many customers of that type there might be. A good book on this topic is Value Proposition Design. You can download a free sample from the authors' website.
posted by elmay at 11:32 AM on December 16, 2014 [7 favorites]
This thread is closed to new comments.
Until you've turned an idea into something concrete, it's not even art - and even art is hard to make money from.
posted by flabdablet at 8:24 PM on December 15, 2014 [2 favorites]