BARBERRRS!!! Credit to @MarvyMarv! He is a big inspiration and a big reason Why I created this article. I have to give a lot of credit to Marv and @thecutbuddy for having a great live on Instagram this past tuesday. I saw Marv’s post about going live at 7pm eastern time and the next thing you know I am sitting at my desk in front of my Lap Top writing this information down.
LIke many of us, we have always wanted to INVENT something. You can invent a tangible item, a water bottle, a speaker, a phone anything that you can hold physically in your hand. Or you can invent something that is intangible. A website, a song, things of that nature. The fact of the matter is you can invent anything you wish you could. You just have to put some ACTIONABLE KNOWLEDGE, as Marv says, into action!
Not to many people know how to create their idea as well as creating the PATENT! I am here to give you a couple steps and ideas that were presented to me by @MarvyMarv and @thecutbuddy! I came out with so much information and with a great direction to follow when trying to patent your next big invention and idea!
Stay tuned guys and I hope we can create, protect, and fight for our ideas through our patents.
AN OVERVIEW OF THE STEPS TO PATENT YOUR NEXT IDEA
- DON’T DO IT FOR THE MONEY! DO IT TO GENUINELY TO FIX A PROBLEM OR TO HELP HUMANITY.
- Identify Problem and find the Solution
- EXAMPLE: Rubber Clipper Cover needed to protect clipper when clipper falls out of the hand of the Barber.
- Search Patent Database for Similar Idea to see if it has been taken already.
- Draw up Models on your new idea and invention.
- Have a Journal in which you take anywhere and everywhere you go. Ideas pop off in the weirdest moments.
- Test and Develop. Buy Material and begin to design a physical tangible model.
- CAD Designer App or College Mechanical Engineer school to create 3D Model on computer and 3D print your Idea.
- Bootstrapping or Investor
- Decide whether you want to put up your own income, even if it is not much, or if you would like an Investor to help you out.
- Get a IP Lawyer to help you set up your Patent Correctly.
- FILE PATENT
- Look for a Manufacturer in the USA or OverSeas.
DO NOT DO IT FOR THE MONEY!
Do it for the betterment of Humanity and the Industry
When you decide that creating a product with an idea that you have had lingering in your mind for a while, you want to be able to determine WHY you are creating this product. Ask yourself “WHY AM I CREATING THIS PRODUCT?”
Truly, if you answer yourself with the upmost truth, you can determine whether you will have success in the patent and creation and selling of your idea.
If the answer to your question is TO BECOME RICH or TO HAVE MORE MONEY, then you are already starting off on the wrong foot.
It is so hard to tell yourself that you are not doing it for the money, but it is so easy to decide that your idea is not for the money but for the betterment of whatever Industry your product will be in or for the sake of Humanity!
When you tell yourself that all you are trying to do with your newly patented idea is to sell like crazy and make money, that’s not a bad idea, but it shouldn’t be the primary driver to your creation.
Many people will get this confused and say, well you need money for everything especially to live and to feel good when buying more and more things foryourself and your family. Yes it is true, you definitely need money, but it comes to a driving motivational source, it only goes so far.
You will catch yourself always stressing about the sales, the cost of goods sold, the amount of people and where these people are buying from and how many they are buying. You will soon get stressed out completely because your product was only to make money.
Also the driving force that will create your product will not be self sufficient over time. Yet, when you create a product that will TRULY help your industry or Humanity, it will set its course on its own because it Truly helps and people need it.
WHAT IDEA DO YOU HAVE IN MIND?
Identify a Problem and Find the Solution
If you are here today you are someone who is trying to create a product with an idea. With those two things in mind you NEED to create a PATENT. You have to sit down and Evaluate whether you have Identified a Problem with the Idea you are trying to create.
Figure out if this Problem exists in everyone else’s life as well.
Figure out if you have a certain Target Market that your product will be involved in.
Figure out how Big the Problem is in order to see how much help your product will give.
This is a Check List that will help you direct your idea in the right direction. If you have already created your idea and you know for sure that it is a Problem Fixer, then lets proceed, But until then, answer these questions truthfully and then keep going.
Finding the Solution will be the Heart and Soul of your Idea, Product, and Patent.
The Solution to the Problem you are trying to fix will only aide in a few results. You must then figure out which result and solution is going to be the best version of your product.
Keep in mind that you are trying to make it as easy and as simple as can be for your Target Market.
Finding the solution will take trial and error. You should draw up your idea or product and try to build a prototype yourself. More about this in the later sections.
The solution to your product won’t be over night. That is one of the hardest ideas to swallow in our day in age. As @thecutbuddy was saying on the live, your best ideas pop off in the weirdes most unforseen places.
You can be outside walking around your house without even thinking about your patent and POOF an idea pops into your head. It takes time and it takes trials and errors. Enjoy the process. When you enjoy the Process, That is when you are not doing it for the MONEY!!!
In order to proceed with your Patent you must have all the ins and outs sorted out. You must have a clear vision on the Problem you are Trying to Resolve. This helps you clarify how you product works detail by detail which will be exactly what your Lawyer will need and what you will need in order to do your Preliminary Patent Search!
https://libraries.psu.edu/patent-search-tutorial-2019 this helps us figure out the process of a patent search.
https://guides.libraries.psu.edu/patents
http://patft.uspto.gov/netahtml/PTO/search-adv.htm
MAKE SURE YOUR IDEA ISN’T TAKEN!
Search Google Database and do some Digging
Now, you can have the greatest idea in the world and you can have it all drawn up on paper and have a nice prototype but if you don’t check in the system if your idea and product already exists, before you do all of this creating, building and masterminding, then you will be set back.
You will have to start a new idea or add on to your idea all over again. It wouldn’t be a bad bad thing because with a little bit of failure you can get to where your idea is so unique that it makes it even better. BUT lets check the SYSTEM FIRST so that we don’t waste no time in creating our patent.
@thecutbuddy and @MarvyMarv recommended to check the Google Database and look deep into it to see if your idea already exists in patent form. Here is the procedure and websites you should go to to see which patents already exist.
THIS WEBSITE will allow you to search for the keywords and terms in order to see what patents already exist that are related to idea. It is a big mess of document numbers and alot of writing and titles and subtitles, but if you navigate it for a while you can find an easy method to find the information that you need.
The information that you need is within those documents. You must read every part if not most of it so you can see what other inventions similar to yours were made. What I did is I would start by reading the titles of the patent, click on the patent, and right away go to the images tab and then click on pictures. It was the fastest way for me to figure out if what these patents were about, had the same concept idea as mine or mine was much different.
My search came up with 50 different patents. I sat there one day and looked thru every single patent and image first, saw that they were nothing like I was talking about, got some ideas too, and proceeded to start my own Drawings on paper.
THIS WEBSITE will allow you to search google for existing patents that have been created before 1976. Google patents is a great tool to use because they make it easier to understand the language. It looks alot cleaner and easier to navigate. Not only does it look but it really is easier to navigate. We are all used to using google so the language and the functionality is particularly easy.
Now when you get to the documentation your looking for, it is still a little bit overwhelming because of how much information is provided for you through the patent. Keep that in mind because that means that when you create your patent, you will know that you need alot of precise information about your invention to properly patent your idea.
With my results on google i came across 14 results which was great because my first search was too broad and I came across 440 results. Which I was still excited about because I knew I had to look and read in order to see if my idea had a patent already. We must do the work in order to get the result. HERE IS THE WORK!
Here is a suggestion when you type in the search bar for google. Do not just type in “clipper with large holding hand made out of metal” Lets pretend that is what our idea would be right. This is how I would Suggest to type it in. (Hair Clipper) (Large Casing) (Metal). You can put any words of description that you relate to your idea, but definitely space them out as I did and put them in paranthesis.
THis allows Google to search the patent database for those exact wqords. So be kind to yourself and describe as much as you can first in order to get the most results. If you look through a few of the patents and realize you got to many different results, shorten the list and keep going through that list of patents that come up. Narrow your search down and keep going. As you keep following this method you familiarize yourself with the database as well as the knowledge you need in order to see if your idea has a patent already.
START DRAWING YOUR MODEL ON PAPER
Get your Idea from your mind to a piece of paper
Throughout this whole process, even from when you first decided that you wanted to invent an idea you had, you must immediately start drawing something up. It doesn’t matter if its exactly what will be in the future or not, just get to drawing it out. Here is an example of what I came up with when I had my first idea.
When you start drawing from your mind you begin to create a thought and making into a reality. It is the first process of creating your vision and believing in your idea. The more you work on it and put it on paper and create rough drafts, the better you will start feeling about it. The step from Idea to reality will be getting closer and closer. Do it right away draw it out and you will see that the process and thoughts and desire will quickly come about everytime you put it on paper.
@thecutbuddy said that our ideas don’t come from having to sit in front of that paper and wait and think out our ideas. He said they come to you in the craziest of places. They can come when your outside walking with your family around the park, they can come when your ordering food at the drive thru, or anywhere that is not meant to be having you consciously think about your ideas.
CREATE A PROTOTYPE
Use everyday Household Material or anything you can find
At the same time that you are drawing up your idea, I would suggest picking up any household item you can get your hands on that will star conveying your drawings and puttimg them into a more tangible item. As I said before in the drawing stage, it doesn’t have to be perfect or exactly as you wish it would be. Get to designing your prototype and putting it into your hands and to work a little bit. Bigger and better ideas will keep popping off throughout the experience you have building it.
These are all fun parts of your creativity. This step will bring you back to how you felt when you were a child building anything from scratch. I have a 5 year old son and when we build from scratch, you can see his eyes light up and his thought process become even deeper and having more fun.
Feel like your a kid again and bring yourself back to those thoughts. DONT DO IT FOR THE MONEY! I’m telling you, it’ll get you only so far. If it does get you to where you want to be it’ll only be temporary. You want to experience happiness now and for the remainder of your life. FOR THE REMAINDER OF YOUR CREATION! Have fun and never forget that.
WILL YOU FUND YOUR OWN PATENT AND IDEA?
An investor can go a long way with little control! Investing in yourself can go a long way with full control!
Once you have thought out your idea, put it on paper and have a bit of an idea of how it works in the real world, you will have to make business decisions that you never thought you would have. You must decide how to FINANCE your idea, patent and creation. Alot of people don’t have the mind for business and finance but you do not need to be an expert in order to get your Patent and Idea Created.
You will first want to decide if you want to fund your own patenet and idea. This means that you will be the one setting money aside and saving up in order to pay for all of the fees that come with the patent of your own idea. These fees include:
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Funding your own idea will allow you to make all of the decisions from here on out. You can decide to stop at any time or to postpone something if you wish. You have full control. Alot of people love to do it this way for this reason. @thecutbuddy says, “YOU DON”T HAVE TO ANSWER TO NOBODY but YOURSELF!” That is a great reason as to why you should fund it yourself.
If you feel like there is no way that you can save money and invest it into your patent, then looking for an INVESTOR would be your best bet. You can ask a family member, a friend, or someone who is in the business of investing into new products, patents, and ideas. Here is the tricky part. To either of these people, you must present your idea in full function. You can not just detail how your idea works, you have to detail how, who, when, and why your invention will be a success financially.
A big down side to having an Investor is if your create your patent, your idea, make it tangible and it doesn’t sell. You will not be able to pay back the investor for the initial investment of creating and patenting your idea. It becomes more stressful and it may derail you. If you have a clear mind and truly believe in your invention and know it will be a success, an Investor, if you don’t want to put up your own money or can’t, is the way to go.
By all means, do not let anyone let you believe that by saying NO, it truly means no. Persistence, desire, and action will get you to your goal.
The work is all the same in either situations. The only difference is that you will feel a sort of obligation to someone else in meeting timelines and satisfaction. Not only your own but someone elses. The work is still the same. You must still do everything you do in these steps if you fund it yourself or if someone else funds it for you.
GET AN I.P. (Intellectual Property) LAWYER
Get the help you need in order to file properly
FILE YOUR PATENT
LOOK FOR A MANUFACTURER (USA or OVERSEAS)
Find the Manufacturer for you Online
