How do I make an idea into reality?

December 17, 2005 10:16 AM

I have an idea for an invention. The only part of it I have is "concept". How do I bring it fruition?

I work in the medical field and something dawned onto me like a burning bush. Now, I have engineering background, no inventing background, NOTHING.
I truly believe that this is something that will benefit the world and make some money.
How do I bring something like this, from concept to market?
Can I patent an idea without the nuts and bolts? Who do I meet with to make this happen? An engineer? A biomedical engineer? How do I make a prototype when I have no background in plastics/metals/machinery?

Help!

posted by erd0c to Technology (14 answers total)

Patent It Yourself by David Pressman, is pretty much the definitive reference. Even if you will have legal help, you should read this to get your bearings.
posted by StickyCarpet at 10:25 AM on December 17, 2005

If you are a doctor the answer is easy, get yourself a patent attorney and he or she will answer your questions, search for prior art, prepare and file a patent application for you. The initial stuff is cheap, including the search, but moving forward into the patent application gets expensive, probably between $5,000 and $10,000. If the idea is good, don't scrimp here as a weak patent will make far less money for you. As for it only being a concept, for mechanical inventions that should be no problem as they tend to be predictable, but for chemical and biological inventions you are more likely to need to do some experiments to show that it will work, not FDA stuff, just proof of concept; again, check with your attorney on the details of your specific invention. If you have a lower budget then it gets harder. You can shop the idea around to companies and if they like it they will fund the patent, but you take some risk if you have not first filed your patent that an unscrupulous or careless company may incorporate your idea into their own product. You will still want an attorney to help with confidentiality agreements. The bottom line is to do it right you want a competent professional to help. If you don't know any patent attorneys and can not get recommendations you might try Martindale-Hubbell. attorneys rated BV or AV are at least held in some esteem by their peers, although this rating system is far from perfect. Whatever you do, do not hook-up with any of the invention promotion companies - they are almost all, if not entirely all, scams.
posted by caddis at 10:34 AM on December 17, 2005

Now, I have engineering background, no inventing background, NOTHING.

surely you mean...

Now, I have no engineering background, no inventing background, NOTHING.
posted by phrontist at 10:36 AM on December 17, 2005

Response by poster: Surely, you are correct!!!
posted by erd0c at 11:42 AM on December 17, 2005

Electrical and Biomedical engineers usually come in handy most when you're innovating in the medical industry. Depending on the application, you may also need a mechanical engineer.

Your best bet in getting the ball rolling would be talking to a professor at a university. Many of them have decades of experience in their respective industry before becoming a teacher.
posted by mr.dan at 11:55 AM on December 17, 2005

If you work at a university or a research hospital, there is surely someone on staff who helps people submit patent applications for a living. I just did this recently through my university.

They'll take their cut, of course, but you'll get access to a team of lawyers and lot a excellent advice.
posted by divka at 12:13 PM on December 17, 2005

See also.
posted by abcde at 12:20 PM on December 17, 2005

you might want to check whether the patent for your idea already exists - there are huge number of them and it's quite possible that somebody's already thought of it.

us patent office database.

also, if you do decide to try to patent something, there are some simple rules to remember:

1) not a natural phenomenon
2) not obvious or trivial
3) no prior public disclosure

read #3 again. you want to be very careful if indeed you do have a great idea that will make you lots of money. that means no posting about it online, no giving presentations in a public forum about how great it is, etc etc. you can talk to people in private about it. more information on patent requirements here and confidentiality here.
posted by sergeant sandwich at 3:43 PM on December 17, 2005

Put your ideas on paper and have them notarized (preferably by a real notary) regularly. Start now! This way, you can prove when you came up with these things, and it could prove very useful in court. I've also heard you can mail things to yourself and keep the sealed envelopes, as that supposedly proves the same thing...
posted by phrontist at 5:15 PM on December 17, 2005

These guys might help
posted by hortense at 5:39 PM on December 17, 2005

For an alternative approach, see the Harvey Reese web site and books:

http://www.money4ideas.com/
http://www.greatideagear.com/how.to.license.mill.idea.html

Harvey usually avoids patents for his ideas. Instead he offers companies that are in a position to exploit the ideas he comes up with a license to do so. Thus he and his licensees take advantage of the reality that the first to market usually owns it, even if they have no legally enforceable monopoly.

As an example, Harvey had the idea to develop fake antlers that people can buy for their dogs to wear at Christmastime. Silly, right? Rather obvious and thus non-patentable? Surely. He has collected (as of the time he wrote his book) over $450,000 in royalties for this popular item.

Depending on your creative idea, his contrarian approach may be the ticket.
posted by yclipse at 5:44 PM on December 17, 2005

I've also heard you can mail things to yourself and keep the sealed envelopes, as that supposedly proves the same thing...

This nonsense is why you need to talk to a lawyer, or at the very least read the NOLO book linked above.
posted by caddis at 6:51 PM on December 17, 2005

Well, all this patent talk is well and good, but it sounds like you are (at least to some extent) motivated by a desire to help the world, not just make money. All the patents in the world will not create a better dialysis machine. What you really need are some partners. Find people who have expertise in the areas neccesary, explain your idea to them, and see if you can work together to move your idea closer to fruition. If you don't know people in the right fields, a university might be a good place to start -- the collegiality also increases the chance that you will meet someone who will say, "Hey, you need to talk to Professor So-and-so about this..." Just be careful; I have been lead to understand that for many university employees, there are arcane and tricksy rules about their inventions being property of the school.
posted by Rock Steady at 8:57 PM on December 17, 2005

Am not entirely sure on this but depending on the company you work for and your work contract, then the idea may belong to them if you had it during work hours. I know I have signed intellectual property clauses in the past. So it may not be a good idea to ask for advice within your company. It may be smart to check with a patent attorney to see if there will be a conflict there.
posted by JJ86 at 4:58 AM on December 19, 2005