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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Inventors Ask (Or Should Ask) |
| For over 49 years, the Inventors Assistance
League has been teaching thousands of inventors how to PROTECT
and MARKET their ideas. As you might imagine, we have
answered many, many questions. Though not an exhaustive
list, the questions that follow are some of the more common ones we
hear. Hopefully, this section will help you understand the
world of ideas and inventions. We also hope it will help you gain
confidence in our program. |
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Because the "invention help
industry" is so tainted by scam invention marketers, we are
often challenged by this question:
How do I know you're not a scam? |
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One of the reasons
Ted De Boer
founded the non-profit Inventors Assistance League was to help
the small inventor avoid the scams. He even helped put
some out of business! And, when you think about it, since the
average amount lost by an inventor to a scam is right around
$10,000, wouldn't we be the dumbest scam in the world to settle
for a small fraction of that? |
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How does your program
help me? |
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Our program shows you how to accomplish
two very important things:
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1.
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Protect your idea--quickly
and inexpensively! |
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2.
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Market your idea to
prospective companies (while maintaining protection) who
may have an interest in buying or licensing your idea. |
For more information, request our
free
Introductory Package. |
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What does your program consist of? |
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Our Home Study Program (HSP) provides
you with the tools you need to successfully protect and
market your ideas. It includes...
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1.
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A 200 page book with
detailed information about protection and marketing of
your idea. |
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2.
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Three Audio CDs of the book
above. |
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A Data Disk containing
useful resources, along with MP3 files of the audio CDs
that you can load into your phone or MP3 player.
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4.
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A special designed
documentation notebook for recording your ideas, along
with the critically important rules to follow, so your
entries are legally acceptable in a court of law as
proof that you came up with the idea. |
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5.
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1 year membership with our
organization that allows you to call or email us with
your questions. We also evaluate your marketing
materials and give constructive feedback so you have the
best chance of succeeding. |
For more information, see our
Program Page. |
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Do I have to tell you the details of
my idea? I
really don't like talking to anyone about it. I don't know
you, so how do I know you don't steal it from me? |
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Good question and approach to handling
your idea's secrecy! NO,
we do not ask you to tell us the details of your idea, nor
do we want you to tell us or anyone else—unless there is a valid
purpose in providing the information AND you are operating under
controlled conditions that keep your idea protected.
However, it's always a good idea for
you to have a generic description of your idea when talking to
someone. For example:
- I have a new type of
dishwasher that doesn't use water to clean the dishes.
- My device makes a regular car
get 100mpg.
- I invented a new computer
pointing device that is better and easier to use than a
computer mouse.
Notice how all of these examples
give a good idea WHAT the invention is, but not HOW it works.
Beware! If your idea is
totally new, telling the WHAT may reveal the HOW. Be
careful! |
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I think my idea is good, but I have
little time to invest into this whole process. What do you
suggest? |
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If you work many hours and don't have
the time to devote following the process our program teaches,
then we can help you with some of the steps. We can't do
everything. You have to do the protection part yourself.
However, we can help with the marketing.
Contact us
for more information. This is one of these cases where we
do need to know the details of your idea--but only under legally
controlled conditions! |
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Why would a company be interested in
buying or licensing my idea from me? Don't they develop their
own ideas for new products? |
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New
products are the lifeblood of any company. Big companies depend on new products currently in
research and development for future sales. In fact, the success
of these companies five years from now depends on sales of
products that don't even exist today. These companies employ
thousands of people in their R&D departments, costing them
millions of dollars to develop new products. If a large company
can get a good idea from you without all the developmental
costs, why not? |
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How can I decide if I should make
and market my idea or if I should sell or license to a company? |
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Our program will show you how to
find all those companies that make and market your type of
product. Then, you will learn how to market your idea
(without revealing important secrets) so that
those who are aggressively looking for new products of your type will contact
you. The program will help you find out what these
companies are willing to pay for your
idea. Based on that information, you can decide if you think you
can do better by making and marketing it yourself. But, be sure
to count all the costs and consider all the ramifications.
For example: a small percentage of royalty on huge
sales of a large company could be a whole lot more money (with a
lot less effort) than all the profits from a small number of sales
you could make as you
struggle to get your product into the marketplace!
You also need to consider how much time
and money you can devote. Are you working full time?
Unless you regularly develop products for a living, you are very
likely to underestimate the effort it takes to get an idea off
the drawing board and on store shelves. |
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I thought of making a bunch of copies of
my idea and selling them at a weekend flea market. This
would give me a good idea if they will sell. Isn't that a
good idea? |
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NO! By offering a product for sale
without protection, several bad things can happen. The worst
would be that in this world of instant communication, a company
could find out about it, quickly file for a patent and they
would own your idea. A lesser evil involved is that by putting
it out on public display, you have "made it public" as defined
by patent law. This means that you have started a time clock
giving you one year to get a U.S. patent. If you
don't meet this deadline, you would not be able to get a patent
at all, losing over 50% of your potential market. Many people
have done this without knowing the consequences and have lost a
potential fortune! |
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Is a working model or prototype of
my idea necessary to be able to license or sell my idea to a
company? |
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A prototype can be very expensive,
usually isn't necessary, and often is a detriment to selling the
idea, as you'll learn in the program. In most cases, it is the idea that has
value—not how it is made or what it is made of. If you
meet with a company and bring in a crude-looking model, it could hinder your chances because
people are visually-oriented and what they see makes an
impression. Almost without exception, the licensing
companies that get patents have found ways to improve their idea
before a patent issues.
However, we are not saying you should
not produce a prototype for yourself that YOU use to further
develop your idea.
That leads to our next
question... |
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What if I filed for a patent but then saw
how I could improve on my idea... what do I do then? |
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This happens far too often. People
understand the need to protect their idea and often prematurely
apply for a patent. The resolution of that is not easy or cheap. In fact, it's like filing for a patent all over again. You would
have to file a "Continuation In Part," which almost doubles your
costs. It also significantly increases the time it takes for the patent
to issue. In that unhappy scenario, the good news is that our
program can very easily be used to protect improvements even to
issued patents if you intend to sell or license an idea to a
company! |
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How long does it take to get a patent? |
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It can be as short as one year (highly
unlikely)... probably more like 3 years. The US Patent and Trademark
Office is currently experiencing a significant backlog of
patents to process. Various factors also influence the
time it takes. The stronger and more inclusive
the claims are, the longer it takes to get those claims approved
by the patent examiners. Many patents have taken over six years
to issue! IMPORTANT NOTE:
The America Invents Act was just passed by the president.
This new law makes many changes to how the USPTO operates.
This new legislation is supposed to speed up the processing of
patents. We will see if it accomplishes that goal...
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Once I have applied for a patent, I would
have a "patent pending" status and protection. Right? |
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Yes, you would have "patent pending"
status, but to say your idea is protected may be an
overstatement. What most inventors don't know is that patent
pending does not prevent someone else from manufacturing and
marketing your product while your patent is pending. Simply put,
there can be no infringement until the patent issues, and at
that point the company selling your product can just stop. In
some cases, this may not be a problem, but for many products,
much of the market can be exploited before your patent issues. |
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Can I protect and sell an idea that
can't be patented for some reason? |
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Too often, people give up on their idea
at the point where they have paid $500 to $1,000 for a patent
search which finds that similar products exist or are in the
public domain. Ideas
can be salable even if they're not patentable without risking
patent infringement. It often depends on the claims
written into the patent. Just because an idea is similar to
another product does not automatically preclude that the company
will have all the capabilities to engineer and finalize your
idea. So, why mess with it—unless, of course, you can do it
yourself and enjoy doing it. Remember that companies are
accustomed to spending a lot of money for research people just
to come up with ideas. If you have a good one, let them do the
work and pay for it! |
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There are many inventor clubs—should I
join one? |
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While at first thought, joining an
inventors club sounds like a good idea, one must ask what the
benefits might be. Think about it this way... if you want to keep
your idea secret—and you certainly should—what do you talk about
when you get together with other inventors? We like to compare
them with fishing clubs where fishermen talk about—guess what?
The big ones they caught... and the ones that got away. Inventors
tend to be a lot like fishermen... proud of their ideas, so they
brag about them to other inventors and suddenly wonder how they
got away! Another drawback of clubs is that they are often
controlled or influenced by patent attorneys. Why would a patent
attorney associate with or welcome opportunities to speak for a
club? Think about it! |
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How does your protection system
work? I thought a patent is the only way to go? |
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Patents are a good thing, but only if
your idea has been proven to be a winner and is ready to be
patented. Patents are very expensive. You don't want
to run out and get one right after having a brainstorm of an
idea. The Protection part
of our program takes advantage of the "First-to-Invent"
provision of the US Patent Law. In a nutshell: If
you can prove that you came up with an idea before someone else
did (known as priority), you have the right to that idea. However,
you can only take advantage of that part of Patent law if you
can prove your claim using legally acceptable documentation that
is acceptable in a
court of law. IMPORTANT
NOTE: Current Patent Law is undergoing change. For
more information see our
Invention New
section. |
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Hold everything!
I just heard
something in the news about this "first-to-invent" law and
how it is about to change. Doesn't that affect what
your entire program is based on? |
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Yes! You are partially correct. The
laws that govern patents and the protection of inventions is
significantly changing. In our opinion, these changes are
good for big companies--and not so good for the small
inventor/idea person. On
September 16, 2011, President Obama signed the new law into
effect. Various aspects of this law take effect on
different dates. The key date for us to focus on is March
16, 2013. That is the date when our "First-To-Invent" law
changes to "First-to-Patent".
THE GOOD NEWS is that you have until
March 16, 2013 to take advantage of
the old law and associated protection tools we teach.
REMEMBER: Our program involves
two parts: Protection AND Marketing! Even if you
have a patent, our program contains valuable information that
will help you market your idea. |
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What is the main reason for using the
documentation vs. patenting an idea, assuming both are
legitimate ways of establishing priority? |
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There are really two equally valid
reasons—speed and cost. An idea can be documented and protection
establish the day it is conceived while a patent application can
take years. Obviously, the cost of documentation
is almost nonexistent while the cost of patent goes into the
thousands of dollars. |
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Does keeping your workbook really stand
up in court as evidence of "First-to-Invent" protection? |
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Legally acceptable documentation serves
as leverage which can be used both in and out of court.
One of our members licensed his idea to
a large athletic shoe company. They patented it, and
later another large company came out with exactly the same
concept. The company who had licensed the idea from our
member sued for patent infringement. Ultimately, the courts
decision in favor of that company was based on the documentation
in our member's special workbook. In another case, a big
toy company stole an idea from a member. Once discovered,
the member approached the company with proof of the fact he had
shown the idea to them before. They realized the game was
up and offered our member a lucrative percentage of the proceeds
from their sales and they have been paying ever since.
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Don't companies file for patents on all
their new products? |
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Large product-driven companies
continually have thousands of ideas for new products in their
research and development departments. If even the largest and
richest company filed for a patent for every new idea, they'd
soon go broke. What all of them do is the same thing we teach
you how to do... they establish Pre-Patent protection on all
their ideas. They only file for a patent after they prove
through market research that the idea has commercial value. |
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Got a question we didn't answer above?
Contact one of our counselors below...
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