There are many people with great ideas. For most of these people, the inventions remain inside the box because they don’t know how to implement an idea. Others spend too much money on the implementation, but they lack the knowledge about the appropriate marketing.
Crazy idea or great invention?
We always read stories of people who turned an original snap idea into a million dollar business. But what distinguishes snap ideas from great inventions and is there a difference at all?
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Inventions are special ideas that offer a solution to a problem. There are inventions that are an improvement on something that already exists. And there are inventions that are completely new that have never existed before. Inventors of such new ideas are able to leave the beaten track, initially in their minds.
Many famous inventors believed in their idea, no matter what other people said about it. However, the patent is important. Graham Bell was not the inventor of the phone, but he was the one who developed and patented Philipp Reis’ invention. The teacher Philipp Reis was the one who converted sounds into electricity so that they could be reproduced as sound in another place. He died in 1874 and a year later, Graham Bell applied for a patent for the advanced phone.
In 1879, Werner von Siemens presented a forerunner of the tram he had invented at a trade exhibition in Berlin. Success did not materialize, but von Siemens maintained its invention. The conversion of horse-drawn trams into an electric tram then brought the desired success and in 1881 this tram ran for the first time.
Even the invention of the automobile was initially not accepted by the Germans. Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz had this idea at the same time in order to be able to move faster. In 1886, a motor carriage and a motorized tricycle were created. The population saw these means of transportation as too loud and too dangerous. Who could imagine life without automobiles today?
Or, who would have thought before 1930 that it would be normal to be able to watch TV? Manfred von Ardenne was the inventor of television – many people will probably still be grateful to him for this invention today.
The best inventions are the completely new things that have never existed before. However, such an invention only becomes a hit if the inventor has been able to convince people of this idea.
To make money with the invention, a producer has to be found. Alone it is hardly possible to produce and market your idea. The best way to negotiate with companies, such as car manufacturers, is to invent something technically new for the automotive industry.
The thing with the patent
Before spending money on the patent, a producer for the invention should be found. The reason is very simple: the invention is protected by the patent for twenty years. During this time, no one else can take up and produce the idea. However, the inventor has to pay fees for the patent every year and in every country in which the patent was filed. After twenty years, the invention is no longer protected. If a producer arrives and markets this idea, the inventor gets away with nothing. Twenty years may sound like a long time, but it takes many inventors ten, fifteen or more years to find someone who believes in the idea of producing and marketing it.
The German Patent and Trademark Office checks whether an invention already exists. In addition, the invention must be a technical novelty, so the patent law wants. If you submit an application to the Patent and Trademark Office, it takes an average of three years for the patent to be granted. The inventor pays around 400 euros from application to patent award.
The inventor has to pay fees for his patent. In the first few years, he pays around 70 euros a year. Then it gets more expensive: 350 euros for the tenth year and 1940 euros for the twentieth year. The total cost of the patent will amount to around 14,000 euros in the twenty years.
The founder of the “Society for Extraordinary Ideas” Armin Witt recommends that the invention should not be patented until a producer has been found and the novelty is about to be marketed. Then there remains the risk for the inventor that the manufacturer registers a patent for the novelty. Being an inventor and becoming a millionaire is no easy task.
If a producer has now been found, the question arises: Should the patent be sold in full or does the inventor hand in unit licenses? If the inventor sells the complete patent, he receives a one-time amount of money. In the case of unit licenses, he would always earn money when a part was sold, and he could sell unit licenses to several producers. This decision is certainly also related to whether the manufacturer agrees if other producers market the invention.
Small patent: design and utility model
Anyone who has not invented a technical invention but a design can apply for the property right called a design sample. If you want to protect a name, you apply for a trademark. For other inventions that have nothing to do with technology, there is also a small patent called a utility model.
A shorter processing time is required for the small patent and it costs less. However, the small patent does not run for twenty, but only ten years. The little catch on this thing is: The Patent and Trademark Office does not control the protection of the invention. Only when a dispute arises because someone claims that this was his idea does the protection ability test take place. So being an inventor is not that difficult, at least not for a person who can think outside the box and is full of ideas. Living from his inventions and earning a lot of money with it is more difficult and the path to it is often very rocky.