The New York Times has an article on patents, with some interesting quotes:
“This is not an area where people should do it themselves,” said Jonathan Putnam, a New York patent lawyer. “You need to understand prior patents and prior inventions. You need to explain how you’ve advanced the product. You need a dedicated adviser who has only your interest at heart.”
Ah, yes. Only your interests at heart.
Ms. Birmingham said she used a friend who was a patent lawyer, spent about $5,000 on legal and filing fees and just recently received the patent for CityShade — two years after filing. The average wait between filing and receiving a patent is 29 months, according to the patent office.
While the patent was pending, she got her Web site, citymum.com, up and running and has sold 2,500 covers at $68 each ($78 for organic cotton).
That would be about $170,000 in revenue, or about $85,000 per year. I wonder what the net is. Another example..
She filed a provisional patent application by herself and started manufacturing SnapIt Screw. But then she discovered that “the invention was the easy part,” she said. “Marketing and getting it out is horrible.”
Ah yes. Note that. An “inventor” finds out marketing and production is where the really heavy lifting is in business. But the person who thinks something up should own it and those who do the heavy lifting should pay the “owner.” What a system! The patent system is the result of an opinion, and of course there are other opinions. The bad idea wins with government.
Finally, she took matters in her own hands, hired a patent agent recommended by a friend and paid $250,000 to patent her product in the United States and 51 other countries.
She got her $3.88 repair kit in some stores. But it wasn’t until she read about an invention contest run by Walmart, where consumers could vote for their favorite product, that things took off.
“I had a screw costume made,” Ms. Tedeschi said, who lives in Florida and Washington State. “My assistant and I flew to New York and walked through Times Square handing out samples urging people to vote for me. I was on the morning talk shows.”
To over the cost of $250,000 in attorney fees you need only sell about 65,000 units, gross. But what is the net? Say it is 10%. Then they need to sell 625,000 units to cover the lawyer fees. Gross or net profit? Love to learn things that, for without it these stories are impossible to derive any lesson. One winner is the lawyer who got $250,000 no matter what. Ka-ching, with only your interest at heart.
She was one of three winners — out of 5,000 contestants.
Ms. Tedeschi, who said she had earned more than $2 million in profit, laments the lack of trustworthy advice available to the neophyte.
Gross or net profit? Love to learn things that, for without it these stories are impossible to derive any lesson. But all you have to do to make $2 million (gross or net?) in the patent system is....
1. Invent a repair kit.
2. Pay $250,000 to patent it all over the world.
3. Read about an invention contest that Walmart runs once.
4. Have a costume made of your invention, fly from Seattle to New York and walk through Times Square giving your invention away asking people to vote for you.
5. Get on the Morning Talk shows.
6. Win the contest.
7. Get orders because you won the contest.
So that is all there is to it. This kind of thing happens everyday, of course, so it will happen for you too. Absolutely no problems at any step of the process in any way! Really! What are you waiting for? All you need is a patent attorney, and they have only your interests at heart. Oh, but wait, there are some scammers out there, so here is advice on how to avoid them...
The patent office offers tips on spotting companies that are out to defraud inventors; one bit of advice is to ignore sales pitches from people who want money upfront. Also, be wary if the offer is for a free kit. The company will most likely then ask for money for an invention evaluation. And more money for a report. And then more money.
It is fraudulent if either -
1. They want money up front.
2. They don’t want money up front.
How much evidence do people need before they say "no more"?
Feel free to forward this by email to three of your friends.
3 comments:
It is a very persistent myth that just because you get a patent on your product, the product will be a winner. Or that you have no business unless you have a patented product.
No wonder entrepreneurship in America has such a high failure rate.
haha. this could be taken from the Onion
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