Inventing Made Easy: The Entrepreneur's Indispensable Guide to Creating, Patenting and Profiting from Inventions

This book has been written by two experienced inventor-entrepreneurs who share the knowledge they have gained in the school of hard knocks. While the title is a great eye-catcher for book store displays, they quickly point out that inventing may be easy -- but successful inventing is not. The book is written plain and simple for the first-time inventor, while still offering much advice that can benefit the experienced inventor or entrepreneur. It covers the field from the first glimmer of an idea to the merchandising of a market-ready product. Typical of their insights is that "Many experienced inventors feel, for the most part, design patents are a waste of time and money unless the design is incredibly distinctive". Many novice inventors have been scammed by outfits that do not explain the difference between design and utility patents. On the subject of patent searches, they give the addresses of locations where you can do your own preliminary search. They, however, recommend a professional search and note "if your patent search is not comprehensive, it is next to worthless". They also note several ways to protect yourself during the patent search stage. One of the valuable suggestions given in the book is to use news releases to promote your invention. The author's note that something on the order of 75 percent of the stories in our newspapers are based on news releases and that they are almost free! Some twenty tips are given on how to write a news release. A sample release is included. Ever notice that some products are only marked patented while others also have the patent number? The writers discuss the pros and cons of which way to mark your product. If you attempt to submit an idea to a corporation, many will ask you to sign a "waiver". They comment "These infamous agreements are toxic to inventors". They advise you to see your patent attorney before signing anything. While there are some respectable invention brokers, the vast majority of those that advertise on radio or television can only be described as sharks. The authors list eight questions that must be asked if you even think of dealing with an invention promotion group. On the subject of raising money by seeking out venture capitalists, they cite the very poor odds. In one four year period only 4,000 awards went to 275,000. They note networking is the key to locating "angels" (informal investors such as accountants, doctors, etc.). If you decide to set up your own business, there are five basic routes you can go: sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation, S corporation, and LLC (limited liability corporation). They give the advantages and disadvantages of each of these routes. If your product becomes a success in the marketplace, patent piracy may make its appearance in the form of lower-priced imported imitations. The legal cost of fighting a patent infringement case is, for the small business operator, prohibitively costly. Here the authors give an interesting o

The authors give a broad description of the patent process, as well as tips and considerations to market the developed ideas. Other interesting topics include the basics of marketing and bussiness development. I particularly like the poignant remarks on the reality of patent laws, which are designed to protect the rich and powerful instead of the poor and average; expect to be dissapointed if you do not have the money to sue someone for infringing your ideas.

This book is a great dose of reality about the inventing, patenting, and marketing process. The authors don't hold back on the truth about what to expect from patent "protection." They're generous about sharing their experiences and letting us benefit from their mistakes and hard knocks. Their comments about the realities of trying to get shelf space in the retail market kept me from making a big mistake in my marketing plan, and I'm working around the problem. My only reason for giving this book only 4 out of 5 stars is that the second section of the book (100 of 250 pages) containing sample inventions and appendices, such as inventors associations and government addresses, could have been left out, lowering the cost of the book. The appendix data changes so rapidly, the information would be more valuable if available on a web site. The material in the rest of the book, however, was very valuable and not available in other inventors books I've read, so I'd recommend reading this book to find out what to expect -- realistically -- from the patenting and marketing process.