Tip 6 – Has someone already thought of my idea?
Blog by Edward Ayres – IP President
If you’ve ever had an idea for a new invention, you’ve probably asked yourself, “Has someone else already thought of it?” The next question is, “How do I find out?” Years ago you only had a couple of options. First, you could’ve conducted an exhausting search of retail locations by driving store to store hunting for your invention. The next step would be to commission an expensive and time consuming patent search. Fortunately, it’s the 21st century and with a few clicks of your mouse you can scour the Internet and even have professional, inexpensive patent searches rapidly conducted. It’s a great time to be an inventor!
In today’s digital world, the products of the world are at your fingertips. We recommend before spending money on patent searches and patent applications that you conduct a little research of your own. The fastest and easiest way for an independent inventor to find similar products, if they exist, is to Google it. Google is the most powerful search engine in the world so if your product or something similar is available there’s a good chance you’ll find it.
Searching the Internet is great place to start, but just because you didn’t find your invention does not mean it doesn’t exist. The next step is to conduct a patent search on your product idea. A patent search, in general terms, is the process of searching the Patent & Trademark Office files for patents that maybe relevant to your invention. While websites are available to allow anyone to conduct a patent search, the Patent & Trademark Office classifies and cross-references patents in thousands of categories so the novice can, and often does, overlook critical prior patents. We strongly recommend hiring an experienced patent researcher to conduct this important process.
When searching for similar products it’s 100% normal to find competition. This doesn’t necessarily mean you need to give up on your idea. For every Coke, there’s a Pepsi, and competition makes the world go around. Similar products may prove there’s a market for your invention, and that consumers may be willing to spend money on it. Home Depot doesn’t sell twenty types of refrigerators because they’re all totally different. They do it because each fridge offers a few unique qualities that appeal to different consumer groups. If you believe in your idea, and it offers a value to the consumer, go ahead and compete.
Inventor Process, Inc. provides honest and reliable invention help. We can assist you with Patent Searches, Patent Protection, Marketing, and Royalty Negotiations. Helping inventors is all we do!
We hope you enjoyed Tip #6. We’d like to hear your feedback on this post and other topics, and please consider sharing this information as it may benefit an inventor you know.
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