You woke up in the middle of the night with a brilliant idea that may just turn you into an instant billionaire. You have a product in mind that no one, not even big corporations, can come up with but you know that consumers need in their everyday lives. The question is, how can you turn your original invention into a reality?
Find the Right Materials
First, you need to source for parts that you need to create your products. Identify each material and look for suppliers in your area. For example, if you need compression springs, there are manufacturers in Texas that can deliver exactly the size and the amount that is required by the project.
This will not be possible if you do not have a clear idea of what you want to do. It will be better if you start with a concrete plan that includes drawings of the product, steps on how to create it, and other relevant details.
Document Everything
At some point, you have to patent your idea so that no one will make a profit out of it. You have to begin preparations at the very start of the project.
You may want to keep an “inventor’s journal” where you will record everything that relates to your invention. Your inventor’s journal can be a notebook that has numbered pages. It should be bound which means parts can neither be removed nor reinserted at any time. Have a trusted individual sign it as a witness to make it official.
There are people who write down their ideas and mail it to themselves in a sealed envelope. This approach is called the “poor man’s patent.” The goal is to have dated proof that they were first to conceive of the idea. This, however, might not hold up in court.
Make a Prototype
This when it becomes challenging and fun. In this step, you will turn your idea into a tangible object that you can hold in your hand. This will put everything that you have written in your inventor’s journal to the test.
Put together the materials you sourced locally. If your invention is something that may be more complicated to assemble, you may want to create a virtual prototype instead.
The point is to enable yourself to assess whether your idea will work in real life. Do not feel dejected if you find a fault or a flaw; you are allowed to make changes to the product as much as you can in this stage. Continue developing your idea until you arrived at something that works for you.
Work on Filing a Patent
Once you are sure of your invention, go ahead and file a patent. However, first, do your research. Just because you do not see a product in stores does not mean it does not exist. Check www.uspto.gov.
You then have to write a patent on your own and fill out the application. You may need to consult a professional for this stage. Let them look at your patent and application before you hand it to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
A professional can spot any mistakes that you have made in the patent. They will save you a lot of headache and money in the future when a competitor tries to scour your document in search of a loophole they can exploit.
The next step is to produce your product en masse and start marketing. If your intuition was correct, if there is a demand in the market that was yet to be filled, and if your invention is made with quality, then consumers will want to buy and use it.
