However, you can opt to sell your idea in several different ways and still make a great profit without having to do the legwork of producing it yourself. Once you have made a list of the companies you would like to sell your idea to, take the time to research every company completely.
Some businesses will have a section on their websites to help you submit your idea. If you happen to find a manufacturer that is interested in your invention, there are usually two options. You can sell your invention idea, or you can outright sell the invention itself for one large lump sum as compensation for your idea. The short answer is yes, if you have a good idea and you do it properly. Responsibly moving from idea to invention to filing a provisional patent application is the recipe to follow.
Selling an idea and waiting for lottery-like winnings to arrive at your doorstep seems to be the American dream. It is certainly the dream of every inventor, and it is a dream fanned by late night television commercials that suggest all you need is an idea and companies will be falling over themselves to pay you for the rest of your natural life for the right to use it.
It all sounds too good to be true! The short answer is yes, absolutely. And, if you come up with the right idea, you can make a very handsome profit. But there is a bit of a catch or problem really. The problem or catch has to do with the definition of what qualifies as an idea worth paying for and what qualifies as something too vague to be worth anything.
While they share some commonality, these are all quite different definitions for what is, generally speaking, a rather simple word; a word that we typically think we learn the meaning to very early in life. This is why what seems like such a simple and straightforward question requires a bit of explaining. Further complicating the question is the fact that the term is used very differently by legal and licensing professionals than it is by ordinary people in everyday conversation.
In fact, if you ask five industry professionals whether you can sell an idea you are likely to get at least six different answers. If you ask a patent attorney if you can sell an idea, the answer is likely to be some version of no.
This is because when a patent attorney hears the question they immediately think about inventions. You cannot patent an idea —that is a well-established and unassailable legal truth.
Of course, every invention starts with an idea. So, too does every product, device, gadget or service. But an idea alone is just not enough. If you ask a business or licensing professional if you can sell an idea, the answer is likely to be some version of yes. This is because every business or licensing professional with any real industry experience will have at least one story they can tell where at least one individual was paid for an idea. Usually these professionals will have dozens of examples they can rattle off with great authority.
But who is correct? Again, the answer is not so simple. Both the patent attorney and the business professionals are correct. In the patent world, you must have more than a mere idea to obtain a patent. There needs to be real substance involved. What is required, however, is instruction manual-level of detail. Eventually you were able to put it together, but the instructions certainly were not step-by-step foolproof. The goal of the patent is to teach, not to be a manufacturing document.
Now, if you have an invention, and the patent application you filed defines your invention to the level required by the law, it is entirely possible that business people and licensing professionals will look at your adequate and thorough legal description and consider it little more than an idea. Because to get a patent you do not have to have a working prototype and you do not need to provide any manufacturing detail. All you have to do is describe the invention on paper so that someone can understand the innovative contribution you claim as yours.
There will be many steps between obtaining patent protection on an invention and actually rolling out a safe, affordable product that consumers will want to purchase. So, for the business person and licensing professional, it is easy to look at even the best patent or patent application and characterize it as an idea, or at best a foundational representation of what the product or gadget will ultimately be once it hits the market.
Many types of inventions are innovative and perhaps lucrative. You may seek to patent such inventions to prevent competitors from making and selling the sale product. Under the Patent Act 35 U. Patent and Trademark Office USPTO will grant a patent to an inventor, which is essentially an exclusive property right over the invention.
Patents are normally valid for 20 years from the date on which the application for the patent was filed, meaning that you could prevent competitors from using "your" invention for two decades. Not every "invention" is patentable, however, even if the invention is interesting or helpful. For example, mathematical formulas, laws of nature, newly discovered substances that occur naturally in the world, and purely theoretical phenomena—such as a scientific principle like superconductivity—are considered unpatentable.
Only inventions that meet a certain checklist of qualifications will be granted a patent. There are several types of patents under U. It is true that patent attorneys, who can help you go through the steps to obtain a patent, are sometimes expensive. Fortunately, you do not always need an attorney to obtain a patent.
If your invention is simple enough, and no other person or entity challenges your claims, you can handle the application process on your own. And for a comprehensive rundown of every step in the patenting process, see Patents for Beginners , by David Pressman and Richard Stim Nolo , which includes sample forms and letters, resources, and a glossary of terms. Typically, employee-inventors who invent something in the course of their employment are bound by employment agreements that automatically assign all rights in the invention to the employer.
While smart research and development companies give their employee-inventors bonuses for valuable inventions, this is a matter of contract rather than law.
Even without a written employment agreement, an employer may own rights to an employee-created invention under the "employed-to-invent" doctrine. If an inventor is employed — even without a written employment agreement — to accomplish a defined task, or is hired or directed to create an invention, the employer will own all rights to the subsequent invention. Most companies prefer to use a written employment agreement because it is more reliable and easier to enforce than an implied agreement.
Both written employment agreements and the "employed-to-invent" rule allow the employer to become the owner of all patent rights. An employer may also aquire a "shop right," rather than ownership of patent rights. Under a shop right, the employee-inventor retains ownership of the patent, but the employer has a right to use the invention without paying the employee-inventor.
A shop right can occur only if the employee-inventor uses the employer's resources materials, supplies, time to create an invention. Other circumstances may be relevant, but use of employer resources is the most important criterion. For example, let's say Robert is a machinist in a machine shop and, using his employer's resources, invents a new process for handling a particular type of metal. If Robert has not signed an employment agreement giving his employer all rights to the invention and if Robert was not employed to invent, Robert can patent and exploit the invention for himself.
His employer, however, would retain the right to use the new process without having to pay Robert.
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