I recently met a gentleman named Billy, who 15 years ago had aspirations to be an inventor. Billy had an idea for a product he wanted to take to market. Instead he got taken and was fleeced by a company that claimed they were going to help him get his idea patented. They kept asking for more and more money until he was tapped out. Billy ended up with nothing, the invention assistance company never even filed a patent application.
The worst part of the story is that the invention idea Billy came up with was patented by someone else just a couple of years ago. Billy started working on his idea over 15 years ago! Granted, just because the “later inventor” was issued a patent, it does not mean he will profit. I’ve searched and I have not seen the product on the market.
It was hard for me to break the news to Billy. He potentially missed out on profiting from his first invention but there was a silver lining. Billy’s first invention was a patentable one. He has the creative spark and the passion to give it another try. With my help, he’s going to give it another try.
Billy is a proud grandpa and he wants to retire so he can give back to the community. He sees using his creativity as a way to generate the money he needs to retire and start doing what he really wants to do. Impact his community one person at time by being an angel investor of sorts who gives people a hand-up rather than an hand-out. The catch is, he does not want the money back. His hope is that the person he touches, will in turn help other people in need, causing a chain reaction.
Billy’s story inspired me to launch this blog and get my consulting firm, Inspiration2Innovation off the ground. Thank you Billy.
In future posts I will describe the legal criteria (in layman’s terms) what it takes to be a patentable invention. We will also explore low cost techniques such as provisional patent applications to protect your idea while you seek out licensees. I do not mean a “poor man’s patent” where you mail the documents to yourself. This scam company actually instructed him to do this.
Thank you for reading. Comments are welcome and encouraged. Let me know what you think.
