LEVITAT

This is part 2 of the series. Part one can be read here. But if you just want the guts of it, here’s a quick summary:

• RULE 1 - do not make your idea public prior to filing a patent.
• RULE 2 - don’t file your patent until you have to.
• Step 1 - research the idea.
• Step 2 - carry out a patent search.

Okay, recap over… So you’ve got an idea, there is a market for it and no one had done anything like it before. What do you do next?

Step 3 is to draft a basic design. You need to figure out how the product will work and get a basic design down on paper. You don’t need to get into the nitty-gritty of the detail, just get it to a point where others can see what it will look like and how it will work. This will be used as a starting point to answer the following questions:

1. Will it work?
2. Can it be made? (In the quantities you are thinking of.)
3. Is there a margin?

If you are technically minded you will be able to research and answer these questions yourself, but most people will need to start talking to experts. Remember rule 1 though, do not make your idea public prior to filing a patent. So you will need to ensure all your discussions are confidential.

RULE 3 – Have a signed non-disclosure agreement (NDA) in place before discussing your idea with anyone. This applies even if you know and trust the person. If anyone later tries to argue that you had made the idea public by talking to these people you can disprove it with a signed NDA. I find most people don’t have a problem signing an NDA and many actually get a kick out of being let in on a secret.

A good NDA (also known as a Confidentiality Agreement or Confidentiality Undertaking) should be simple and clear. There are two good reasons for this, firstly it ensures there can be no misinterpretation of the terms; secondly it allows the person you ask to sign the NDA to understand that there is no risk in their doing so.

The NDA should simply state that the other party will not disclose your idea without your permission. It will however exclude any information they already knew, is in the public domain or is given to them legally by another party. You should be able to compile a decent NDA yourself by doing a web-search. Be sure to read through a few of them to ensure yours covers everything you need it to.

For some answers you won’t want to disclose your full idea and deal with the issue of NDA’s. This may well be the case when you want to get several quotes for the cost of producing your design. A simple way around this is to disguise your design. Show components that have similar shapes to your design but do not give away your idea. You may need help in doing this from one of the experts who signed your NDA.

To get positive answers to the 3 questions above you may well need to redesign your product a couple of times. You might learn that changing the shape or the basic functionality will greatly reduce your costs.

RULE 4 - make changes as early in the process as possible. Remember that a change in the design at this stage costs you nothing… changing a design after patents are filed or manufacturing has begun can cost you a lot.

We already knew we had an idea, there was a market for it and no one had done anything like it before… now we know it will work, can be made and can be sold at a profit. It’s time to start getting serious about taking this to market. Come back for the next post to learn how.