How can I share, use, & patent my ideas without getting conned in the process?

[CZroe]

I've got too many awesome ideas for so many things, but I don't see them as anything I can possibly do by myself (Therefore I'd have to share the ideas with a capable team). I'm a self-educated, working, 21 year old that still lives with my mother and I don't have the type of education to know how things work in the business world. By the time I could complete college, these ideas will certainly be in use and unpatentable. I'm not gonna fork this over to some "get rich quick" idea-search company on TV. I have no idea what kind of proceeding to go through to do it myself (Who do I contact?). I'm sure people of the Highly Technical variety have some experience getting stuff patented, do they not? Help a guy out (I don't want to stay poor living in this trailer forever)

THNX!

I dreamed of a peer-to-peer file swapping network with anonymous searches integrated into an IRC-like network long before Napster existed... If only I knew some C++! Then the Napster kid pops up, does it, gets it wrong, and kills the idea for everyone. By making it centered around music, instead of being able to share anything, it would not have been so easily targeted by the recording industry. It would have been the same as outlawing email, because it is capable of transmitting any kind of data; copyrighted or not. Also, they did not provide an alternative use to legitimize it, as the IRC likeness would have. Filetopia is VERY close to what I intended, but it was dead in the water from all the copy-cat software splitting userbases. I still have ideas to revolutionize that, but I've pretty much moved on. Now I have incredible ideas for distributed computing and how it can actually be mass-marketed and profited on. Can't give any more details, but I think it's big.

 

[Zebo]

Ideas arn't worth much of anything but product is. You need to get moving into the direction to get you ideas into product. Sure I have many wonderful ideas about new chair designs, tables etc but until I actually draw em' up on autocad and show someone there are no takers for my idea. Sometimes that does'nt even work and I have to build a prototype and bring it to S.F. furniture shows to get any attention.

So you had the idea of napster before that kid did but you had no idea of the process and proceedure from IDEA to Product and that the real key and the guys who get the rewards.

 

[jhu]

ideas are a dime a dozen. it's the implementation that people want, and it's the implementation that you'll be able to patent, not the idea.

 

[Mday]

jhu is correct.

 

[ShadowWolf]

Wrong. Patent your ideas and SELL them to innovators. Wait for someone to SEE you have a patent and if they're serious they WILL call you and they WILL buy your patent from you. I'm not kidding.

Information is what make people rich, not implimentation. Implimentation is for the grunt workers. The rich just innovate and invent.

In fact, if you REALLY wanted to get your ideas going, start up a company. Just a sole-proprietorship and get some employees to help you out.

Depending on what you need, i DO know C++ and could possibly help you.

The tech industry doesn't work like any other industry. IN fact, there's a guy who thought up a the JEDEC standard which is used for ALL SDRAM. He never implimented it, but a RAM company bought it from him for a good amount of money and now look at it! his name is actually on it too

LOL, also you probably want this:
http://www.uspto.gov/

that's the website for the United States Patent office, which I assume is the one you want.

Otherwise just search www.google.com for [ Insert country name ] Patent and Trademark Office.

That should help you out as well.

 

[MustPost]

doesn't the patent office require at least the designs if not finished product before you can be granted a patent?

 

[pm]

No, you don't need a finished product to get a patent.

A prototype is usually necessary, however, before VC's will consider the idea of seed money to implement an idea - particularly in the last year or so.

I would highly recommend a patent lawyer over trying to submit a patent application by yourself. As someone who currently has patents pending, I can say that it's a far less intuitive process than I would have thought before I got started. A good lawyer should be able to increase the value of a patent substantially.

 

[Zebo]

pm,

Did'nt you have to sign a non-compete agreement with Intel? Just curious what you could be designing that would'nt conflict with those very inclusive agreements. New bicycle frames?

 

[jeremy806]

Just remember, getting a patent is one step, selling the idea is another.

And, getting a patent will run you $10k or so, and take 3-4 years, maybe longer for communication type stuff.

Anyway, not trying to discourage you, just saying it how it is.

Best of luck to you and your ideas. Remember, you need to have the idea developed sufficiently such that one skilled in the relevant technology could implent your idea based on your disclosure/description.

Go get em dude,

Jeremy806

 

[GL]

I think if I were you, I would at least get a prototype of your idea implemented. It gives you a lot more flexibility in terms of options. If you go to somebody with only an idea, that person is as far from implementing that idea as you are. So if the person does steal your idea, you have no advantage over him/her in coming up with a working implementation first. However, if you have a prototype you're at least a few steps ahead of anyone else. So you can approach several people and if none are interested you can try to do things yourself.

And as somebody has recommended, definitely get a patent lawyer. Scrimp and save if you have to but come up with the money if you really believe in your idea. I'm somewhat familiar with the patent process and as PM pentioned, it isn't very intuitive. The lawyers we had work on our patent at my company were all well-versed engineers or scientists and they were able to give some very good advice with respect to the ideas we had. Chances are you will be very busy getting your own act in order with respect to the implementation - you don't need to bog yourself down with the piles of paperwork and time necessary to get the patent.

 

[daddyo]

I'm sorry, but jhu is right. Everyone has ideas. Everyone.

The people that make money are the ones that do something with the ideas. There are very, very few instances of people paying money for just an "idea" with no prototype from an unknown person. Bill Gates can sell his ideas, you can't.

The best way to do something with your idea is to either learn the skills yourself, or team up with someone who has them. If you're teaming up, you'd better be prepared to a) cover yourself with NDA's before you even mention anything b) give up a significant portion of the proceeds to the person actually doing the work.

The only way you can retain the majority stake in your endeavor is if you're willing to HIRE people to do the work for you. Otherwise you're going to have to give up significant ownership.

 

[gbuskirk]

If you want to be a private inventor, I'd recommend researching the process of obtaining a patent. Learn to do prior art searches.. Study how claims are written. Know exactly what makes your invention novel, non-obvious, and useful. And stay away from the cheap invention marketing companies. Knowing how to create patentable inventions is a very valuable skill for corporate inventors as well as private ones, and it's not something taught in most schools.

 

[KLineD]

Ok that guy who said patent takes so long what you don't take into account is this:
The moment you come up witha good idea, before sending it to the patent office, take a few envelopes stuff them with plans for your idea, and mail them to yourself. once you get them do NOT open them, save them in a safe place somewhere. My engineering professor has somewhere around 20 patents and he has about 100 envelopes and packages never opened. Why you ask? The date USPS postmarks it is the date you came up with the idea. If someone tries to get a product out that uses your idea without giving you royalties, you have PROOF that you had the idea first. You can also have the documents signed by a Notary Public, costing a few bux a pop while the envelopes r 34 cents.. Also, patents take less than a year usually my professor said. He used to work for ConEd, and some of the stuff he designed went under ConEd's patents , but the stuff he did before/after he had the job is solely his, and he has collected royalties for it for quite a few years....the patents are about to expire soon though, as he is around 60 now and his hard-working days were between the ages of 25-40 so...