Many independent inventions stall before they reach a market. The mechanism does not engage with a clean motion, the materials warp under heat, the unit cost prices the product out of its market, a manufacturer says the design is unmoldable. The inventor stares at a...
Independent inventors lose real money on the wrong kind of help before they find the right kind. They hire a patent attorney before they know if the idea is novel. They pay for a physical build before they know if anyone will license it. They sign with a promotion...
The American Inventors Protection Act of 1999 added 35 USC 297 to federal law. The statute requires invention promoters to disclose contract terms in writing before any inventor signs. Twenty-six years later, a large share of inventor complaints to the Federal Trade...
A patent grants the inventor the right to exclude others from making or selling the invention, which is what makes a license worth paying for, but the USPTO does not market or commercialize patented inventions for you. A first-time inventor sending cold outreach to...
A typical inventor underestimates the time cost of a do-it-yourself product launch by a factor of three. Industry surveys put the median DIY effort at 200 to 1,000 hours of unpaid work spread across 12 to 36 months. The same product run through a competent firm...
The Federal Trade Commission has filed enforcement actions against more than a dozen invention promotion outfits since 1994 under the American Inventors Protection Act. The pattern repeats: glossy marketing, vague promises, big upfront fees, and a contract that...
