The Inventor's Mind

Get empirical. Hold it in your hands. Wow potential investors or licensees.
After your product is designed, you’ll need to make a prototype to prove out the function. The only time it makes sense to skip the prototyping stage is when a design is so simple it is very easy to understand, and therefore you can try and license with just a computer rendering and a pending patent. No matter how much time you spend thinking about and drawing your product, you can only imagine so much. At some point you need to get empirical and hold something in your hands. You’ll probably discover almost immediately that there are many things you want to change; therefore, prototype sooner rather than later. You’ll typically end up with at least three prototypes to perfect a design. Don’t be disappointed when the first one shows up and it has problems. That’s normal. You can start with very rough prototypes that you can then cobble together yourself getting closer and closer to the finished product with each step.
You never want to create tooling to manufacture something you haven’t received a good prototype for. Speculation is too often wrong. Never skip this step. Doing so is likely to cause some terrible heart ache. I have done this. Learn from my mistakes. Even so, there is always a leap of faith you have to take when you go from prototype to production. The prototype needs to demonstrate the final function of the product, but rarely will it actually function as well. The last 10 percent of the function is usually only realized in production. As I said, it takes a leap of faith. Use your judgment to decide when the factory fully understands all the details of the product.

If you are looking to license, a prototype becomes a valuable sales tool. You can show it to your potential partners so they don’t have to imagine your product based on a picture (Which may be difficult for many left-brained business people!) You want the prototype to WOW them. You want them to go “that’s Sweet! We want it!” So it is important to invest enough to have your prototype look as close to a production part as possible and, hopefully, work well, too. If you must, you can always split it into two prototypes, a breadboard model that works well, but doesn’t necessarily look nice, and an appearance model that looks good, even if it doesn’t work at all.

Modern invention is a team sport. The ideal of the lone wolf inventor is out of date. It takes many skills to develop an invention idea to the monetization point, and very few individuals will be good at all of them. As you progress, assemble experts in a variety of areas, both as core team members and advisors. Cover the following areas of expertise: product design, engineering, branding, manufacturing, finance, legal, marketing, public relations and sales. You might possess several of these skills, and someone else might be able to handle several of them. You just need to make sure they are all covered. Many of these skills can be brought into your team at no expense at first; interview some lawyers and accountants. They’ll give you some basic advice in your interview! Recruit your designer and engineer for equity.If you are manufacturing your invention  find a sales rep in your industry and sign a deal to start getting their input on strategy. You want power players for each role in the invention process. Each person should be great at what they do, so you can focus on your own strong suits.
Once you have a great team in place, it becomes easier to create the next product. With each person knowing their role, you can eliminate most of the bottle-necks in the process. After 16 years of being in the invention business, it takes me 10 percent of the effort to accomplish the same work due to the strength of my team.
Since it is inventing, one of the most important team members you need to locate is a manufacturing partner. For most items, China is the place where things are made. There are many agents that can help find reliable manufacturers. You can also use Alibaba.com (a web-based directory of Chinese factories). However, I recommend auditing any factory you plan on proceeding with past prototyping into production. Either go yourself (it’s cool in China!) or send an auditor like AsiaInspection.com. The right manufacturer won’t charge for basic engineering and will provide inexpensive prototypes as proof that they can actually produce the product.
Most of the “invention services firms” you see advertised on TV are a waste of your money. They offer to “help” you for a fee, sometimes quite large. Then they do nothing active to secure a licensee for you product, merely adding it to their catalog of inventions which they publish. It takes focused and special attention for every single product that is licensed. This kind of approach very rarely provides any useful value for what you pay. You need to work with devoted partners who are committed to your product.

Intellectual property (IP) protections are obviously an important part of being an inventor, thus, as an aspiring inventor, it is vital to learn about the different IP tools. There are many books on the subject of IP. If you are serious about your product, take the time to learn about this, because it is the source ofyour ability to practice.
First, there are non-disclosure or confidentiality agreements (NDAs). Use NDAs to protect the confidentiality of your invention while talking to potential partners, but don’t be overly paranoid. In my experience, paranoia stops way more business than it saves. You can have a lawyer draw one up or by a generic one. If you are applying for a patent, it is important to keep your product officially confidential in order to not accidentally destroy your ability to apply for a patent.
Patents serve several purposes:

1. they provide some legal powers to maintain exclusivity

2. they give you the ability to seek a licensee

3. they lend credibility to your product in the eyes of the consumer or licensee

4. they discourage casual knock-offs.

There are several types of patents: provisional, design and utility.

Provisional applications give you a one-year period of “patent pending” before you have to file a full application and cost much less to file. The provisional patent application is a powerful tool for the inventor and used properly can save lots of money and help drive better patent writing.

Design patents cover the physical appearance of a product. They provide much more protection than most inventors realize and are great for protecting products that derive their benefit primarily from their form.

which cover novel, non-obvious inventions “reduced to practice” (you can’t just patent an idea) are expensive and tricky to get, but are also potentially the most valuable as they can cover numerous applications of the same idea.

What many people misunderstand is that patents don’t actually prevent anyone from doing anything. They just give you the right to sue someone to stop them if they are infringing. You still have to sue them and win. This is very expensive. A utility patent lawsuit can easily cost more than $1 million in fees per side (Design patent lawsuits are typically much less expensive as the situation is usually clearer cut.). If you lose, then you not only lose the decision you were hoping for, you also lose all that money. Therefore, at the individual inventor level, it is unusual for a case to be prosecuted, as neither side can really afford to take the risk on a business where the money isn’t in the many millions of dollars. As a result, most patents are never truly enforced. It often comes down to a game of “chicken”– where the side with the deeper pockets usually wins. If there is doubt, the parties will usually settle and make a deal. Nevertheless, it is very difficult to license an invention without a patent, even if neither you nor the company is likely to enforce it.
You don’t have to wait until your patent is issued to get a license. I have licensed many products while the patent is still pending. Most licensees will insist on adding a clause that says if the patent never issues and the application is abandoned then the royalty they have to pay either disappears or goes way down, but I feel it is much better to get going rather than wait, which might take several years. In fact, I usually try and license my inventions under provisional applications, which give me the opportunity to work with the licensee to perfect the application before submitting it. This is to both parties’ benefit!
Trademarks can be just as important as patents to the success of your invention. Registering your trademark is a great way to add value to your invention. This can increase your payday if you license it or increase your sales if you manufacture it. As I mentioned earlier, the PowerSquid trademark was just as important to the success of that product as the design.

For turning your invention into  a winning consumer products, nothing is more important in generating success than great product design. Design is thought. A product with good design has more thought put into in it than a poorly designed one. Every point has been considered in order to perfect both the performance and appearance of the invention.

My theory for product development is what I call the Perfect Product Pyramid. I don’t mean absolutely perfect, of course. I mean relatively perfect. The perfect product is the one that gets on store shelves and sells well, not the one that is so well-featured that only a few can afford it. To be “perfect”, products need to have three areas of excellence:

1. The design,

2. The technology

3. The function.

Most “inventions” have to do with either their function (what it does that is special) or the technology (how it does it). To make the product great, it needs all three. A great functional invention with lousy design is a common mistake that inventors make. Look at the products on the shelves at the store. Everything looks great! That’s where you want to be, so your product needs to look great, too. Also, it needs to look diFFiRenT in order to stand out among competitors at the store. Good design isn’t just styling, it also impacts the user experience – providing ease-of-use, lack of annoyances, clever construction ergonomics and enjoyability. Good technology with a bad functionality is also a common mistake many inventors make when creating their products. Good ergonomics is expected by the modern consumer. And we’ve all had experience with products or inventions that look great but don’t work well. We call that “designer”. It’s art more than it’s product.

If you aren’t a product designer, you’ll need to hire or partner with one in order to turn the rough concept of your invention into a defined one that is ready to be shared with a factory or potential licensees or customers. A good designer will work with you in order to guide your decisions based on their experience in the industry. They can answer many questions about the financial repercussions of design decisions and help you come up with a realistic solution to the problem you’ve identified.

The best invention ideas will come from personal experience. Look for products or tasks that annoy you and think about a better solution. Then, imagine more solutions to the same problem. I call this “problem-based inventing” as opposed to “solution-based inventing”. Most inventors come up with a particular solution to some problem and then fall in love with it. It’s their “million-dollar idea”. Consequently, when faced with evidence that their particular invention solution is not actually an economic opportunity, they ignore it out of their zeal rather than adjusting their vision to match the realities of the situation. Not every great idea is going to be a great money-maker, so be ready to adapt as you learn on your journey.

Test your idea in an imaginary scenario to determine if it has legs. Ask yourself: Can I really imagine people buying this invention? Who? At what cost? What stores? Next to what other products? You should be as conservative as you can be in answering these questions to avoid wasting money on a product that isn’t going to be easy to monetize. Niche products that appeal to small slices of the population can still be quite profitable (like my super-premium algae scrapers!) and the markets are usually easier to penetrate than mass-markets.

Think about your invention. If you are going to proceed, you want to work on a project within your means. How complicated is it? Does it require technology that doesn’t exist yet? Is it very expensive? If you haven’t done this before, it may be best to start with something smaller and simpler. Maybe you want to put the solar-powered airplane on hold (unless you’re that guy, in which case you know you are because you can’t NOT do it).

Next, test your idea with a few friends. You are looking for an instant “that’s awesome!” or “I NEED that!” or “Why didn’t I think of that!” “That sounds kinda cool,” is not the same thing. By the way, if it takes a long time to explain and your friends have a confused look on their faces, it might not be a great opportunity.

Hello Fellow Inventors,

Wow! What a busy (and hot) summer it has been here at Trident Design, LLC. We have been working on some very interesting products for independent inventors in the last few months. We are working on a game-changing camp chair for our good friend Larry Murray. Larry identified a need for a better lightweight, sturdy, compact chair while IT contracting in Afghanistan for the last year. Of course, it also has an exciting, innovative angle we can’t tell you about yet.  He hired us to help him bring his idea to life and we just received the first round prototype from the manufacturer.  We are super excited about this product! Larry just came back to the States for a few weeks’ visit to ride in the Hoka Hey Challenge, a 10,000 mile motorcycle race!

A few other products we are working on are a water rescue device, a green home décor item, a travel accessory kit, an innovative cell phone case, a bike lock and a medical sleep device, amongst others. Our licensing division has really been making some great strides this summer. We have established some great new contacts in Toys, Infomercials ( i.e Snuggie) and in housewares.

Chris and Andy spent a few days in Southern California presenting a new, Russian  robotic toy technology to two of the largest toy manufacturers in the world. The initial feedback was amazing and we are hoping to see the technology incorporated in some very well-known established toy brands.

We recently had the pleasure of seeing another Trident invention hit the shelves of Petco.  We helped inventor Bill Holmberg design and license the QuickView dog nail clipper. Bill received his first (of hopefully many) royalty checks in July.

We have also been having a great time working with our corporate clients helping them introduce new products to their existing lines. We have recently finished up a child safety lock, a children’s training potty and a series of new dishracks.  All of these products will be sold into the major retailers of the world. There is nothing like the rush of walking into a store and seeing a product you created on the shelves. It’s an anonymous type of fame!Trident welcomes Inventors to contact us with your idea or product to find out how we may be able to help you bring your idea or product to market.

Please give us a call at  614-291-2435 to learn more about how we may be able to help you with your idea or product. We offer free, no obligation phone consultations for inventors companys with products in all stages of development. Please be sure to visit our facebook page to get interesting articles and tips on inventing.

Invent the future!

Regards,
Team Trident

We Would Love to Hear Your Idea!

Please Call  614-291-2435 or Email Us at info@trident-design.com to Schedule a Free Invention Consultation

There are certain types of products that we use on a day to day process, things that we don’t even realize we need unless we don’t have it or run out. One of these items is soap.  Recently, I have noticed a surge of energy in soap products that has been brought on by the development of foaming action.  All of these years we have been using liquid soap, and there hasn’t been much innovation except new fragrances and funky bottle shapes, nothing truly compelling. But when you change the consistency, it changes the world as we know it.  Sure it’s cheaper, but is it easier to apply? I don’t know. Does it smell better? Maybe, maybe not. But the fact is that it is just cooler.  This describes an aspect of the design process, the innovation aspect.  It is something we do here every day.  A lot of the things that we work on aren’t new and futuristic products. They are things that have existed for a long time and we are simply transforming them to make them better.  Just like changing the consistency of the soap, we change colors, features, and mechanisms that make a product easier to use, more attractive, and more likable.  The motto here at trident is “transforming everyday tasks into opportunities to enjoy life.”

-Nile

Here’s something you might want to give a quick glance over, 10 success stories you wouldn’t have expected:

10 Accidental Inventions That Became Big Business

As inventors and designers, we understand the amount of effort and dedication that goes into every product.  For the most part,coming up with the idea is the simplest part of the process.  When the idea comes to you, stars (and dollar signs) start to fill your eyes, butthe truth is there is much more to come before those dollar signs in your mind turn into bills in your hand or your bank account.  The product development phase consists of patenting, designing, marketing, branding, and the selling. All of these processes have to be executed with excellence, and only occasionally does an idea sell itself and not need much parenting and coaching. If you are an aspiring inventor with an idea, don’t bet on the easy route to Wal-Mart, instead expect a challenging process with ups and downs. And not every product is a homerun. If you happen to be fortunate enough to have a blockbuster idea, then more power to you, it is one less thing for you to worry about. But it’s like Chris says, not every product is a homerun, some are singles and doubles, but if you have enough base hits eventually one will roll around home plate.

-Nile

Accidental Inventions