Have a Great Idea? Keep it to Yourself just a Bit Longer.

So, you’ve come up with a smart new idea or product and you believe this could be The One: The idea to make you millions; the idea that will change the way people work, or clean, or watch television. Before you start sharing that great idea, you’d be wise to first consider protecting your ‘Intellectual Property’.

Follow these ten important steps to make sure your ideas and inventions remain protected:

You can also click here to review our related Entrepreneur’s Checklist. 

1. Run a patent search: Before even contacting a lawyer, do your research and make sure your idea (or one just like it) hasn’t already been patented. The US Patent and Trademark Office’s Web site lets you run free searches on all patents, published patent applications and registered and filed trademarks: www.uspto.gov/main/profiles/acadres.htm.
2. Build a Model:  Many innovative ideas, while smart in concept, fall apart in the development phase.  Building a model helps you determine if the idea really works and where it may have flaws.  While it is not necessary to build a product ready to hit the shelves, a mock-up will reassure you how important your idea is, and will help make the case to others when the time is right.
3. Take a thorough read of your employment contract:  If you have an employment agreement, you need to give it a careful read because it may transfer ownership of your idea to your employer. If you were hired to invent a product or help solve a specific problem, you will most likely be obligated to hand patent rights off to your employer. If problem-solving is not your sole job function but you developed your idea with company resources, beware: you may still own the patent, but your company may receive “shop rights”, or non-exclusive rights to use your invention. Remember, people invent, not companies.  The patent application is filed in the name of the inventor(s), even though it is owned by the company.  If you own a business, you need to make sure that you have an employment agreement obligating inventors to assign their inventions to the company.
4. Engage the services of a registered patent attorney: While a quick Web search may return hundreds of sites promising to file your patent application for less, it is important that you hire a patent attorney, registered by the Patent and Trademark Office. A patent, or intellectual property, attorney will be able to tell if your idea is patentable over another idea already out there, and can help identify existing patents that your idea might infringe, which could turn into a much larger lawsuit for you down the road.
5. File a Provisional Patent Application: Your attorney can then assist in writing a provisional patent application, which describes your invention in detail and is filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The filing fee is $100, and gives you a one year window to file the actual patent application.  Your attorney may suggest a patent search before submitting the provisional application.
6. File for Permanent Protection: While you may be tempted to run a focus group or conduct testing on your product before filing a provisional patent application, hold off on sharing your idea until you’ve filed your patent application to ensure that your possible foreign patent rights are not compromised.
7. Determine Type of Protection: There are a variety of patent applications to choose from, based on the type of product you’ve invented. The two most popular patents are Utility Patents, which cover devices and compositions of matter and Design Patents, which cover the physical appearance of a product. You may also need to file for a trademark or a copyright, depending on the type of creative work or expression.  Patents, Trademarks and Copyrights all fall under the umbrella of Intellectual Property.
8. Be Prepared to Wait:  The processing of a patent application at the Patent and Trademark Office can take three years or more. However, once your patent application is officially filed, you may use the term ‘patent pending’ and begin selling/sharing your product while you wait for the patent to be examined and hopefully granted. Trademarks typically take about one year to receive, and copyrights usually take less than 6 months, though it’s possible to expedite your copyright in less than one week.
9. Use nondisclosure agreements: Sharing your idea with business partners and investors is a necessary task if you want to build momentum before a launch, but how do you share your idea while still protecting your trade secrets? Once you’ve filed a provisional application, and before you’ve filed your non-provisional patent application one year later, make sure that you ask for a signed “non-disclosure agreement” before you share your information with anyone. Most non-disclosure agreements require signers to withhold from sharing confidential information without your consent.
10. Set realistic goals:  Just because you’ve had an idea patented or trademarked doesn’t guarantee success for the product.  Sometimes, patenting an idea is the easiest part. From here, you’ll need to determine why consumers need to buy your product, or why investors should back your idea. Spend the necessary time to build a business plan, and set goals for introducing your new idea to market.