Inventing Process - A quick Guide

A quick guide to inventing in the UK

Inventors
Most people that invent something are not full time inventors. They are usually just normal, everyday people who happen to come across a problem and then work out a possible solution.

Patents
Patents are the system by which people with new inventions can tell others about them and be offered protection by the state for a set period of time. The idea behind them is that by revealing how something is done, a person can look at the documents and study them and think of further improvements or see how the technology may be applied in other areas.

Patents cover geographical areas, usually individual countries and you must take out a patent for all the countries you wish to have protection in. A patent will not guarantee that someone will not copy your product – if someone does so then you have the right to seek damages and perhaps even stop them from producing the product. However if you end up in court you will have to work out how much time and money you are able to spend defending your patent compared to their resources.

Can I talk about my invention?
Most people are under the impression they cannot talk about their invention at all unless it is to a patent agent. This however is not strictly true. You should not reveal anything about your invention which you may want to protect with a patent, but you can talk about your invention in very general terms to people to give them a sense of the kind of area the product is in.

For instance you can tell people you’ve got an idea for a better screwdriver, or a better baby feeding product. But you keep secret what it is that makes it better and how it works. Then if the person you’re speaking to happens to know someone that works in the marketing department of a chain of DIY stores or for a retailer that sells a lot of baby products they might be able to help you in someway.

In the UK a lot of emphasis is placed on not revealing your invention prior to filing an initial patent filing, much more so then in countries such as the USA. Doing so may prevent you from gaining a patent. You should not tell others specific details about your invention or demonstrate it in public (such as going on a TV Show) but at the same time you shouldn’t be so secretive about very general things that stop people being able to point you in the right direction.
Where to get help
You can speak to a patent agent and they might be able to give you some pointers. However you should note that a patent agent’s job is to get you a patent for your invention, not to judge how likely it is to sell.

Many patent agents will give you some free time for an initial meeting (usually 30 minutes) and if you want to take it further they usually charge on an hourly basis. You would probably be charged around the £200 per hour mark.

The Chartered Institute of Patent Agents holds regular clinics at a number of sites around the United Kingdom giving free basic advice to innovators who are at the early stages of developing an idea and allows you to go see a patent agent for about 30 minutes for free.

http://www.cipa.org.uk/pages/advice-clinics

Usually the Patent Agent you see will not give his or her name so that they are protected from being sued but you can rest assured that whatever is said to them stays confidential.

Inventor Clubs
There is a growing number of Inventors Club in the UK. Many are linked to UK Universities and often also to business arms of the university. Quite often clubs such as these will be able to offer you help in building prototypes and even creating a potential business from your idea.

The concept behind many inventors clubs is to give the individual help and support in getting their invention from an idea in their head to a product on the shelves or out in industry.

Most inventors clubs will be able to offer you a place to discuss your ideas in private with fellow clubs members so you can see what they think of it and so they can offer suggestions on how your idea may be improved or worked on.

Getting the Invention to Market
When most people come up with a great idea they think it will be an instant hit and everyone will want to buy it. That may in fact be very true. However in many instances although the public may want to buy your product, manufacturers may not want to produce it. If for example you came up with a better product that lasted 10 times longer then the old product, the public would love that product because it saves them money as well as the time involved in changing the old product. However if you’re a manufacturer you may look at the new product and realise that you may sell a lot of these initially but after that, your long term sales will fall as the item needs to be replaced less often.

Routes to Market for Your Invention
There are basically two routes to market. You can either manufacture the product yourself or you can license the product to another company that will produce it for you.

With licensing the other company will usually sell the product and pay you a royalty fee, usually around 5% of the price that the item will end up being sold for in the store.

With self manufacturing you have the opportunity to have more control and in the end perhaps make even more money, however what you potentially gain in money you lose in time. Running a business can be long and tiring work, and often full of worry, especially if it’s a brand new business. By licensing your product you can often leave a lot of the worrying to someone else. It is important when licensing your invention to take account of time in the contract. You could for instance agree to be paid 5% of everyone of your product sold, but if none have been produced in 6 months you earn 5% of nothing. Therefore you should look to see what the company you license to thinks they will sell and agree a minimum payment, perhaps on a monthly basis.

So for instance if a licensee thinks they will sell 10,000 units a year at £100 each and pay you 5% royalty you’re inline to get £50,000 in royalties. This is about £4,167 per month, when averaged over 12 months. But if you want to guarantee you have a steady income you may ask for a minimum payment of £2,000 per month over the next 2 years with anything above this coming to you as well. This might be very useful for seasonal products, for instance if you’d invented a Christmas or Summer Product.

Even DIY products are very seasonal with the majority of DIY purchases in the UK being made over the summer bank holiday weekends when people decide they have time to do all those little jobs around the house they’ve not had time to do all year. As well as this the big DIY chains will put on extra advertising to tempt people into their stores.
How long will it take?
Most people think that their idea is great and people will snap it up and it will be in the shops in a few months. The reality is that getting a new product to market is often a long and drawn out process that can take many years. In the UK getting a product to market can take anything from 5 to 10 years, assuming the inventor doesn’t give up in the meantime. Inventors can often spend anything from £40,000 to £100,000 of their own money on their product before it finally gets on the shelves. Filing patents in multiple countries can be costly and very time consuming. But added to that many retailers have no interest in purchasing a product that isn’t fully completed and ready for sale. Some of the best known UK retailers and brand names specifically state on their websites they cannot help you with your invention ideas.

Invention vs Innovation
An invention is usually a brand new idea, whilst an innovation is usually an improvement on an existing idea. Britain for example is well know as being a country of inventors, whilst Japan is famous for taking existing products such as televisions and cars and continually making improvements to them. Most products that are patented are simply improvements on existing ideas.