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.
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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.
