The Inventor’s Plight
Inventors for the most part all find themselves in a “plight”. Here's why.
Every inventor has given “birth” to a new idea, or device, or procedure or “thing”. Having given birth to an invention automatically links a person to humankind’s claim to fame and key to global domination: our inventiveness. There is almost a manifest directive concerning inventions, once invented an invention needs to be made available to all of mankind.
But:
Most inventors probably don't have all the resources needed to bring their idea to the public. (A lot of inventors don’t even have the resources to take their idea to the prototype phase.) This means they have to find funding, from those that have resources but not the idea/invention.
This means F&F, money people or corporations. F&F means friends and family. For most of us our friends and families don’t have any more resources than we do, so we’ll move on to the next group. Money people, as a rule, believe that they actually have something (money) as opposed to not much of anything (an idea), so the money people (if they can be found) almost always tricky to work with; not giving equal respect to the idea person. Corporations, on the other hand, not only have the same mind set as money people, corporations also have the problem of agendas. In other words there are within every corporation people that are already vying for the corporation’s resources to take on their own projects (which ostensibly ought to be money makers for the corporation).
Furthermore, ideas, probably because they can go nowhere without resources, are perceived of minimal value. It seems as if this leads society to the view that it's no big deal to steal an idea. (Evidence: look at the expense and troubles one has to go through to get marginal protection for an idea.) It is more than likely that if an idea is stolen from you, you will get blamed for not doing more to protect it. The poor inventor has to promote his idea while at the same time protect it from theft (which can only be done by keeping the idea secret.)
I can hear the objections to this last claim. But what about patents? What about non-disclosure agreements? What about…. We can save the deficiencies of these for another discussion.
The astronomical cost of Invention development: Ideas that can be produce in mass cheaply might be very expensive to prototype and test. So even before an idea can be prototyped, lots of money must be poured into the idea with the hope that the prototype proves the idea will work. And then even more money needs to be poured into idea to see if it will be a moneymaker in the market.
The problem of trailblazing: Anything that is new and original is instantly seen a risky, simply because, "nothing like it has ever been done before". Because it has never been done before, it might even be seen as being impossible to do. This makes getting supporter for new ideas extremely difficult to do (most of the time).
Humans are reluctant to change, and so they are reluctant to accept innovations, even very good ones. Sometimes it takes seeing a lot of other people trying a new thing before the bulk of humanity is ready to try that new thing.
The problem of specialized roles: Inventor types are one kind of person. It takes other types to get a new venture off the ground. It would be a rare inventor that can be all the things needed for a new companies launch. So the inventor has to find and attract these other kinds of people to his invention.
These are some of the factors that make up the Inventor’s Plight. Are you getting the idea of what I mean? If you can add to this list please comment.
Solutions?
What would I do to help inventors? One thing is I would organize the bridges (or build them is necessary), between inventors and angel investors. I would also do more to honestly and faithfully evaluate new inventions. I also would like to see a service of a 3rd party registration of ideas, similar to what the Writer's Guild of America has for scripts. (I think it would be easy for the patent office to have an official database of ideas and when they were thought up to protect inventors when they go around pitching their ideas in search of funding to move those ideas forward.
Steve
Every inventor has given “birth” to a new idea, or device, or procedure or “thing”. Having given birth to an invention automatically links a person to humankind’s claim to fame and key to global domination: our inventiveness. There is almost a manifest directive concerning inventions, once invented an invention needs to be made available to all of mankind.
But:
Most inventors probably don't have all the resources needed to bring their idea to the public. (A lot of inventors don’t even have the resources to take their idea to the prototype phase.) This means they have to find funding, from those that have resources but not the idea/invention.
This means F&F, money people or corporations. F&F means friends and family. For most of us our friends and families don’t have any more resources than we do, so we’ll move on to the next group. Money people, as a rule, believe that they actually have something (money) as opposed to not much of anything (an idea), so the money people (if they can be found) almost always tricky to work with; not giving equal respect to the idea person. Corporations, on the other hand, not only have the same mind set as money people, corporations also have the problem of agendas. In other words there are within every corporation people that are already vying for the corporation’s resources to take on their own projects (which ostensibly ought to be money makers for the corporation).
Furthermore, ideas, probably because they can go nowhere without resources, are perceived of minimal value. It seems as if this leads society to the view that it's no big deal to steal an idea. (Evidence: look at the expense and troubles one has to go through to get marginal protection for an idea.) It is more than likely that if an idea is stolen from you, you will get blamed for not doing more to protect it. The poor inventor has to promote his idea while at the same time protect it from theft (which can only be done by keeping the idea secret.)
I can hear the objections to this last claim. But what about patents? What about non-disclosure agreements? What about…. We can save the deficiencies of these for another discussion.
The astronomical cost of Invention development: Ideas that can be produce in mass cheaply might be very expensive to prototype and test. So even before an idea can be prototyped, lots of money must be poured into the idea with the hope that the prototype proves the idea will work. And then even more money needs to be poured into idea to see if it will be a moneymaker in the market.
The problem of trailblazing: Anything that is new and original is instantly seen a risky, simply because, "nothing like it has ever been done before". Because it has never been done before, it might even be seen as being impossible to do. This makes getting supporter for new ideas extremely difficult to do (most of the time).
Humans are reluctant to change, and so they are reluctant to accept innovations, even very good ones. Sometimes it takes seeing a lot of other people trying a new thing before the bulk of humanity is ready to try that new thing.
The problem of specialized roles: Inventor types are one kind of person. It takes other types to get a new venture off the ground. It would be a rare inventor that can be all the things needed for a new companies launch. So the inventor has to find and attract these other kinds of people to his invention.
These are some of the factors that make up the Inventor’s Plight. Are you getting the idea of what I mean? If you can add to this list please comment.
Solutions?
What would I do to help inventors? One thing is I would organize the bridges (or build them is necessary), between inventors and angel investors. I would also do more to honestly and faithfully evaluate new inventions. I also would like to see a service of a 3rd party registration of ideas, similar to what the Writer's Guild of America has for scripts. (I think it would be easy for the patent office to have an official database of ideas and when they were thought up to protect inventors when they go around pitching their ideas in search of funding to move those ideas forward.
Steve
posted by Steve at 12:16 PM
1 Comments:
I've found over my two decades of working with inventors that many people with new ideas don't know that we have a unique "first-to-invent" patent system in the U.S.
This means that as long as you're keeping proper records in an inventors logbook and keeping the idea secret and can prove that you were the "first" to invent the product, that you don't need an expensive patent or prototype in the early idea stages to be protected.
And there's many other strategies and techniques on how to spend as little money as possible until you at least know if it has the potential that you initially thought it did.
Yet many people with new ideas believe that you have to immediately go get a patent, or get an expensive prototype, and this myth leads them to the numerous scams that agressively advertise on TV, radio, magazines, and now the internet which provide worthless services, and often charge thousands, if not tens of thousands, of dollars.
So lack of knowledge is a big part of the inventors plight. There's a lot of things that inventors can do on their own for very little money, and you'll find lots of free information, resources, and Scambusters info at the NationalCongressofInventorOrganizations.org web site including the free online INVENTING 101 course. I hope this helps in your inventing journey.
Sincerely, Stephen Gnass
Executive Director, National Congress of Inventor Organizations
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