...IF you want to get a Return on your investment in TIME and MONEY is....

"CAN YOU GET ORDERS?"
or
"WILL IT SELL?"
and if so...
"To Whom?"

Maaaany yars ago I went thru the "invention" process....hiring a "Patent Attorney" ($1,000 up front)....going thru a "Patent Search" ($2500- I was gullible)....and another $1500 for "Research")....and...after $5000 out of pocket for a "big city patent attny" I STILL didn't have an actual "Patent"....so...I said to myself, "Self! YOU have got to remember the MAIN THING in this "Patent Process"...

"He Who Gets His Product To the Market the Fastest...WINS!"

I spent 9 months TIME, farting around, going to Inventor's Clubs and meeting with other "Inventor's". I discovered TWO things about the "Inventor's" I came across;

1) They are GREEDY!
The "inventors" I knew were SCARED TO DEATH of telling anyone of their invention...to the point of Paranoia... worried that "someone" would grab their "idea" and run with it...CUTTING THEM OUT OF THE MONEY TO BE MADE WITH "THEIR" INVENTION!

2) They didn't know beans about "Marketing" or "Selling" or "Negotiating"!

Thus...they were at the mercy of "Inventor Exploiters"!

2 examples:
1 guy had a great idea for a product and even got a patent on it (a unique Tool)
After trying to interest 15 or 20 Mfgrs he "thought" that S_____ would REALLY go for his product. So, he brings it to S____ and S____ says; "Nope! Not for us!" And S____ then proceeds to COPY his invention and makes it and places it in their stores.
My inventor friend then sues S_____ and S____ ties it up in the courts for 17 yrs...all the while selling my inventor friends invention to the tune of millions a year.
So...when S____ finally settles the deal, the inventor DOES settle for a tidy sum (because he DOES HAVE A PATENT)....HOWEVER....MOST of the settlement money goes to the attorneys and my inventor friend winds up with squat-didly.

Also....I had another inventor buddy who had a GREAT product...patent and all...BUT...he NAMED it wrong.

He got a HUGE Drugstore chain to take on his product and just before they started to market it the NAME he had stamped on each product suddenly, overnight...in ENGLAND....became a NAME associated with "CRAP". The NAME on his product was "Teeny-Bopper"....which was started in the UK and became a NAME associated with a lowly-type of person. So...the huge drugstore chain CANCELLED.

So...since I knew the "LAW OF INVENTORSHIP"...the one who gets his product into the "marketplace"...the firstest with the mostest...WINS....I started selling my product as FAST as I could.

And...after 6 months, sure nuff, lo and behold, ANOTHER company starts presenting a SIMILAR PRODUCT to the SAME Niche market as MY product. In fact, their product was so close to mine it was OBVIOUS to anyone it was a ripoff.

HOWEVER...for me to defend myself would cost me "$5,000 IN FRONT" in attny fees.

So...I went ahead and proceeded to sell the hell out of the product until the market was exasperated. I had made my money WITHOUT handing it over to greedy attnys OR allowing the copycats to gain the upperhand because....I WAS IN THE MARKET FIRSTEST WITH THE MOSTEST!

And I promoted the hell out of the thing (mostly using my Free Publicity talents) until I felt the market was realatively "saturated"...at which time I sold the "rights" to another company who went on to sell the thing for a few more years.

Thus....proving my point;
"Get into the market the FASTEST with the MOSTEST!"

If you have something good all a Patent gives you is, "The RIGHT to sue someone!"

And...if the ones you sue don't give a poop about your suit...they can sell YOUR invention for years....take all the profit out and settle with you for peanuts.

Anyway...thanks for allowing me to remember an early experience in my life of "entroopeneerism".

Don Alm

to establish costs for pursuing it, i.e.,
> what costs are involved (patents etc.) and
> what would be a reasonable start up sum? I
> suppose I would have to at least create a
> prototype (are there other roads?). Once
> I've done that, if I don't want to begin a
> small business producing and distributing,
> is there a way to sell the invention?

> I would appreciate a brief rundown of what
> the process is from conception to profits,
> what the major choices are, and the general
> cost/effort.

> Thanks.




Some of my Unique, money-making programs.