Toy and process of use

Did you own one of these? Or do you know somebody who did? Most likely, there have been some 250 million Slinky's sold. In 1943, the inventor Richard James came up with this toy, and received a patent on January 28, 1949 titled: Toy and method of use.

When the inventor first demonstrated his invention at a department store in Philadelphia in november 1945, he sold his total stock of 400 Slinky's within one and a half hour. While mass production costs were below 5 cent, Richard could sell them initially for one dollar a piece. An excellent 95% gross margin, definitively worth protecting with intellectual property.

So, whenever you have an idea, consider protecting it. It may be the next Slinky...

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Picture by Roger McLassus., CC BY-SA 3.0

What is the most valuable intellectual property?

One of the most known trademarks on the planet is this bottle. A trademark on a bottle.... that is interesting, here is why:

Most intellectual property lapses after a specific time. Not so for trademarks.. You can have a trademark to infinity..... The image below is a design patent from 1937 on the Cola bottle, which finally lapsed in 1951, after the maximum protection of 14 years....

Yet, the Coca cola company managed to secure a trademark on the bottle on April 12, 1960. And,... after a quick inspection, and not very surprising, the trademark has been renewed ever since and is still in force... 61 years after the issuance of the trademark, and a whopping 105 years after the initial market introduction of the cola bottle. No question, it will be protected for a long time to come....

My message is, if you aim for a long lasting company, be very serious about your brands and trademarks. They are indeed the most valuable intellectual property.

Will your product or service be copied?

Your product will be copied under certain conditions. One of the conditions is, evidently is, that your product or service is selling well and brings in sufficient profit...

Once you reach that point, yes products may be copied... and you can defend yourself against this in various ways...

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Foto from Plagiarius website, 3rd price winner of the 2018 competition

Inventors successes, tape measure

The tape measure has been around for a while. Since 1868 to be more precisely. A rough estimation of the numbers sold is about 200 000 000... two hundred million...

Just think whenever you have a good idea... how much it may sell... and how nice it is to have the exclusive rights to it....

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Patent drawings can be beautiful!

 Patent drawings can be very beautiful! 

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The Valley of Death

98% of all ideas die in the valley of death... This is the harsh reality of inventing.... Reasons for ideas to die are plenty:

- not enough invested money,
- not enough skilled people,
- not enough market potential,
- not enough selling force
- etc. etc.

In my upcoming newsletter I am going to present three fundamental tips to reduce the valley of death, and to increase the chances of survival of your idea. I will explain these tips with two real life examples:

The company Helianthos, now Hyet, a developer and producer of flexible solar cells,

and the company Ambri, a developer and producer of a new type of batteries for industrial scale storage of electrical energy.

If you want to learn about reducing the valley of death, subscribe to my newsletter. As a bonus, you will get the booklet: "Seven mistakes to avoid in protecting your invention" for free.

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Overcoming the valley of death in innovations

The valley of death.... every innovation has to go through... Most innovations will not survive the valley of death.

How to increase the chances of survival of your invention, I will explain with some examples from real life in my next newsletter. I will present some tips to reduce both the width and the depth of the valley, and thus increase the chances of success of your innovation.

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 #patents and #inventions

Things we take for granted, pneumatic tires

Now that the weather allows for a nice ride, please remember, whenever you take your bike, that it runs on an invention of John Boyd Dunlop. He obtained a patent for his invention in 1894, complete with inner tube and outer tire...

Until today a company exists, which is bearing the name Dunlop..

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Inventions are special, complex or solve intricate problems

Sometimes, you may think that inventions have to be very special, complex and/or solve intricate problems.

Well in the light of relaxing covid measurements, the nice summery weather and the upcoming weekend,
have a look at this:

Quote: "The present invention provides a small umbrella ("Beerbrella") which may be removably attached to a beverage container in order to shade the beverage container from the direct rays of the sun."

Here, the message is: Inventions do not have to be very special, complex or solve any intricate problems...

Enjoy your weekend!

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Know how and trade secrets...

An alternative to patent protection is keeping everything secret. For products that may not be the best protection. Yet, specific manufacturing techniques may sometimes actually be better protected by secrecy, especially when the final product does not disclose the way it has been made.

The most outspoken Dutch example of a well kept trade secret is that of the way of producing microscopic lenses by Anthoni van Leeuwenhoek... Now some odd 300 years later, still, state of the art research is performed to find out the way he made his lenses......And it appears that he perfected commonly known techniques, at least according to this article: https://lnkd.in/dPNw2Dv

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Boost your patent

Ever thought of getting your patent in a standard? Once in a standard, selling becomes automatic...

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#standard #patent #invention

Top 20 reasons why startups fail

About two years ago, CB-insights published a research on why tech startups fail. They interviewed 102 startups that stopped operations, and listed the results in the image below.

The first reason for failing is that there exists no market for the products or services delivered by the startup. Something that happens similarly with inventions. If the market appears not to be accepting the offers on sale from the startup, or the inventor... that is a strong indication that the startup/inventor fell in love with his or her product, not with his or her client.

The second reason being that the startup runs dry of money. This reason can be closely related to the first reason, if there is no market, or no paying customer, there will inevitably come a time that the money is gone.

The third reason is that there is a lack of the right people... People who can sell, organise, have drive and amazing discipline.

All of these issues, my clients, inventive entrepreneurs are struggling with as well. What are your struggles? What is hindering you in becoming successful? I am very curious about this. If you respond in a DM, I will give you my book "ten mistakes to avoid in protecting your invention" as a thank you gift. It is full of neat tips, to improve your chances of success of your ideas, with a neat IP-strategy scheme on getting the best protection for your ideas. 

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here is the link to the original article: https://www.cbinsights.com/research/startup-failure-reasons-top/ 

How do inventors predict the future?

Marty Cooper, the inventor of the cellular telephone was in 1981 convinced that ‘cellular phones would absolutely not replace local wire systems. Even if you project it beyond our lifetimes, it won’t be cheap enough.Well how wrong could he be, some 15 billion smartphones have been produced, that is almost 2 per person on the planet. Inventors underestimate the success of their invention, however more often overestimate the success of their invention. And this can lead to a lot of frustrations.... If you as inventor has had any difficulties in bringing your invention to a success, or have found frustrations in doing so, please let me know. If you respond in a DM or in the comments down below, you will receive my latest book: "seven mistakes to avoid in protecting your invention". There are some very useful tips for inventors in avoiding the most common mistakes made. Best is to DM me in linked in: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hendrikdelange/ #patents #invention #predicting

Build a prototype

Why should you build a prototype of your invention?

To see if it works and to demonstrate to potential clients or investors. Just be aware: A shown or demonstrated invention can no longer be validly protected by a patent...

So: Do not forget to first consider protecting your invention.

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Can governments make exceptions on patent rights?

 Can governments make exceptions on patent rights?

The answer to this question lies in the regulations of the "trade related intellectual property" (TRIPS) addendum to the WTO treaty.

In the articles 30 and 31 therein, the possibility to set limited exceptions to a patent in force is indeed provided for. In article 30, governments can make exceptions, where for example the public interest weighs heavier than the interest of the patent holder. In article 31, governments can force licenses under certain patented products, again in view of the balance of interest between the public and the patent holder....

So in the end, the patent system is well prepared and designed for the exceptional case of for instance a deadly pandemic.... How cool is that!

For all of you patent holders, do not fear your patents become worthless. This situation is so exceptional that to my knowledge, never before since the draft of the WTO-TRIPS these exceptions have been used...

Yet that the possibility is incorporated in our legal patent framework, is really, really cool!

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Less than 1% is electrically driven

 135 years ago, Carl Benz obtained a patent on the first commercially available internal combustion engine driven car. Last year, in 2020 some 78 million motor vehicles have been produced, while the planet now knows some 1.4 billion registered motor vehicles...

Some 11 million registered vehicles on the planet are now powered with electrical power, still a little less that 1 per 100..... Yet, the number of electrically powered vehicles is growing exponentially. We are witnessing a massive technological shift...

It is fun to be alive in these times!

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Do you need an IP strategy ?

Some days ago, a dear friend send me a text message, that only 5% of companies have some form of Intellectual property (IP). He also said that Mona Keizer was trying to boost that number.... Mona Keizer is our vice minister on economic affairs and in that role, she tries to raise the awareness on IP. Companies with IP have on average a substantively higher value. This finding is based on a recent European report on the Value of companies: "Intellectual property rights and firm performance in the European Union" A cool example of this value is reflected in the price of beschuit, a very Dutch type of double baked bread. The "no brand" Beschuit of the Spar supermarket costs 38 cents, while the strongly branded "Bolletje" costs 1,04 euro. Almost triple the pice for 13 of basically the same dry slices of double baked bread. That is what an IP strategy can do. people do believe so much in your brand, that they are willing and prepared to pay triple. Think about this when you consider an IP strategy for your company, IP may do you some good! Subscribe to my newsletter for more on patents and inventions. #patents #inventions #IPstrategy

Patents boost the value of your start up

In 2009, Donald Sadoway started the company Ambri as an MIT spin off. He left the institute with a vision, an idea and a patent on a new type of electrical power storage. That combination was sufficient to attract the capital to start and produce these batteries.

Now, some 12 years later, the first commercial scale batteries are being deployed. This technology may very well change the world of power generation and power storage. The reason he could attract sufficient capital was because he had his invention protected. Typically, the value of a start up is increased by on average 300,000 Euro if a patent is applied for. So if you are considering a technical start up, or raising capital in your tech company, do consider to patent your new technology. Patents may well be the key to your success. subscribe to my newsletter for more on patents and innovation.

#patents #invention #capitalraising