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.

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.

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.

We are good friends with our fellow inventors at Edison Nation, (www.edisonnation.com), who conduct live product and invention searches to find new ideas for corporations to pursue. They also recently launched a $25 Million Innovation Fund. This fund is going to be used to invest in high potential inventions and patents with funding up to $250,000 per invention, in order to prepare them for market. This money will be spent on R&D, engineering, patent and IP protection, and marketing materials. The Fund is sure to be an exciting opportunity for those who make it in.

We are extremely pleased to be able to announce that one of our inventors, Trevis Kurz, has had his invention (which we helped him develop and patent) selected to move forward in the Edison Nation Innovation Fund. Trevis’s already well-developed invention will get even closer to a production ready design, as well as a great boost from Edison Nation’s high profile. Trident Design will be there along the way, working with their team to perfect the device and bring it to market.

Photo From Article

Although every one of us interact with plastic on a daily basis very few people consider that there is a whole world out their surrounding the plastic industry. Industry professionals who have a need to know the ins and outs of all things plastic related turn to the monthly periodical, Plastics News. Plastics News focuses on commercial, financial, legislative and market-related developments worldwide that affect North American plastic product manufacturers, their suppliers and customers.

Based off our successful licensing of the Trident invented Scriptsafe (which securely protects prescription medicine from unauthorized use)to Flambeau (one of the United States largest manufacturers of plastic cases and boxes.) Plastics News recently published an article about Trident Design and Chris Hawker our president. We here at Trident incorporate the use of plastic into almost every single one of the products we develop. Plastic is the most easy, affordable and moldable substance to work with and is a very crucial element in our product development process. Besides what they say that any press is good press, this is just a really nice article about Chris, Trident, and some of the things we have accomplished. Here is the link to the article, feel free to check it out.

For Trident founder, its all about the fips

-Nile