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How To Copyright An Idea
In this article we talk about how to copyright an idea. Have you a written a new ebook that you would like to distribute or a new song that you would like to publish? Do you have an idea for a movie script that you would like to shop around? Have you developed a new app for smart-phones that you would like to sell online?

You understand that to protect your ideas from being “stolen” before you get the chance to reap the financial benefits of your creative expression, you need to copyright your ideas. However, intellectual property laws have always confused you and spending money on an attorney, to help you through what you truly believe should be a simple endeavor, is out of the question.

Luckily for you, once you get past the rhetoric, it is truly simple to copyright an idea. Below, we will discus various aspects of copyright protection and how to obtain a copyright.

So Can You Copyright An Idea?

A copyright protects the original expression of an idea. Such as, the way a book is written or the way a dance is performed, not the ideas they express.You cannot copyright an idea per se. You must first convert that idea into something tangible. This means by writing it down or recording it.

Requirements For Copyright

To receive a copyright, your idea must meet these two requirements:

1. The idea must be original, meaning not copied from someone else

2. The idea must be reduced into a tangible form of expression, which can be reproduced or otherwise communicated, such as on paper, cd, dvd or similar.

What A Copyright Does

A copyright grants you the exclusive right to reproduce, sell or distribute your idea. This is more accurately a “negative right” to prevent others from reproducing, selling or distributing your idea.

What a Copyright Protects

Copyright protects written works, musical scores and lyrics, dramatic works, choreographic works, pictorial, graphic and sculptural works, motion pictures and other audio visual works, sound recordings and architectural works.

What a Copyright Does Not Protect

Copyright does not protect ideas (such as insights, facts and statistic), patentable subject matter, names, titles, short phrase and slogans, familiar symbols or designs, list of items (as opposed to explanations), oral works which are not reduced to tangible form (such as speeches or vocal performances) or works consisting of common property (like the the standard calendar).

How To Copyright An Idea

Copyright is automatically secured when a work is created. No further notice or registration is required. However, there are certain advantages to registering a copyright. Some of these advantages are as follows:
1. Registration provides a public record of your copyright
2. If you register within the first 5 years of the publication of your idea, your registration will be considered prima facie evidence in a court of law.
3. If you happen to win that court case, a registered work makes you eligible to receive statutory damages and attorney’s fees.
How To Register A Copyright

You may register at anytime during the life of your copyright. To do so, visit the Library of Congress website, download and fill out the appropriate form for the type of work you wish to register. You then need to mail the it back to the Library of Congress along with a copy of your work and the appropriate registration fee.

Alternatively, to receive a lower filing fee, faster processing time and other advantages, you can register your work online through the Library of Congress’ electronic Copyright Office (eCO).

In summary, to copyright an idea you need to 1) reduce your original idea into tangible form, 2) make sure it is eligible for copyright, 3) visit the Library of Congress website, 4) fill out the appropriate form, 5) deposit a copy of your work and 6) pay the registration fee. It’s as simple as that.
February 3, 2013
Patent Licensing: How To Monetize Your Ideas
In this article we provide a brief discussion of patent licensing as an attractive way for inventors to monetize their patents.

You have created a new invention and you have spent a lot time and a considerable amount money obtaining a patent for it. What’s next?

Well, you probably want to be rewarded for the many hours you spent developing your invention, and you would most likely want to recoup the thousands of dollars you spent obtaining the patent.

The solution then is to monetize or make money from your patent and the underlying invention.

Monetizing Your Patent

There are three basic ways you can monetize your patent:
1. By entering into some entrepreneurial venture involving your invention. For example, you may manufacture and market your invention, or employ it in some service related business.
2. By assigning or selling your patent and underlying invention to a third party for a financial gain.
3. By collecting royalties from patent licensing.
The decision ultimately depend on how you want to make money. For those who are business-minded, the first option may be the most appealing. With this option the potential financial rewards are greater, but so too are the risks.

For others, however, the second and third options may be the easiest and most economical routes to monetizing their patent. With these two options, someone else assumes all of the business risk, while you, the inventor, get paid comfortably just for being an inventor. The rest of this article will focus on the last of these options, patent licensing.

Patent Licensing

Besides a patent holders ability to exclusively manufacture and offer for sale his invention, the most common way to monetize a patent is through patent licensing.

A patent license is an agreement in which the patent holder, called a “licensor“, grants to a third party, a “licensee“, the right to commercially exploit a patent and the underlying invention. A patent license establishes the conditions under which a licensee may exploit the patent and the obligations with which the licensee must comply. Like other contracts, a breach of the obligations set forth in a patent license may result in the termination of the agreement and the return of the exploitable rights to the licensor. Thus, a patent license is revocable. This is in contrast to the second option above, where the patent holder sells or assigns his exploitation rights irrevocably.

In return for granting the patent license, the licensor receives a series of payments over a specified period of time, usually the life of the licensing agreement. These payments are called “royalties”. A licensee’s failure to pay royalties would be considered a breach of obligations and will usually result in the termination of the license agreement. If this occurs, the licensee loses his right to exploit the patent and the licensor may choose to license the rights to someone else. This acts as an excellent deterrent against the breach of royalty obligations and makes licensing particular attractive to patent holders.

Advantages of Patent Licensing

Some of the other advantages of patent licensing include:

– Low cost. Typically the only costs incurred when licensing a patent is for presenting and marketing to potential licensees and negotiating deal.

– Transference of risk. The licensee assumes all of the business risk.

– Freedom. An inventor is free to pursue other ideas while still profiting from his invention.

Disadvantages of Patent Licensing

A couple of the perceived disadvantages of patent licensing are as follows:

– Low rate of return. Royalties typically range from 2% to 10% of the net revenues. Compared to the potential rewards from entrepreneurial endeavors, this may seem miniscule.

– Risk of bad deals: A bad licensing deal can tie up your patent for an extended period of time and may result in expensive legal battles over royalties.

That being said, the route you take to monetize your patent should depend on your personal desires, resources and know-how. If you are simply an inventor and do not possess the the means to finance an entrepreneurial endeavor or the business acumen to make it succeed; or you simply wish to receive an income stream from the exploitation of your patent, without bearing any of the business risks, patent licensing may be your best option.
February 3, 2013
10 Things That Should Be Invented

Yes there are plenty of existing inventions in the world, many of which we may never have a use for (such as pet sunglasses). But that doesn’t mean we should limit our imaginations and hold back on new things that should be invented. Some of these are actually in progress, others are distant dreams, and some are just plain wacky.

So here is our list of 10 things that should be invented:

1. Dream Recording Device

The average person has between 4-7 dreams per night. But most of them are not remembered, or forgotten moments after waking. So wouldn’t it be nice to be able to record your dreams and play them back in 3D High Definition the next day? Imagine if you could simply set your dream Tivo to activate when it picks up that you are in REM Sleep (where dreams come from).

You could even filter them by category: funny, scary, adult-rated, and so forth. If your dream is really good then you could upload it to YouTube or broadcast it, or even produce a movie about it.

Of course there are many dreams that you may not want to remember, so the dream recording invention would simply delete it.

2. Self-Cleaning Clothes

This invention’s not too far away, and is likely to appear in our lifetime. Engineers in China have invented a method to get clothes to self-clean themselves when exposed to sunlight. All thanks to nanotechnology.

So instead of wasting time washing your clothes, you could simply go for a walk in the park. Good exercise and clean clothes all in one.

By why not tae this invention a bit further. Non-creasing clothes. Besides not cleaning your clothes ever again, you wouldn’t need to iron them either. An hour a day saved at least.

3. Instant Food

Imagine having a Netflix for food? You see a screen displaying a menu that allows you to select from thousands of dishes, as well as any fast food joint you can think of. Hungry for a Big Mac but don’t feel like collecting it? Just select it from the menu and have your 3D Printer print it for you. Want to snack on an artistically shaped pastry that tastes exactly like the one from a patisserie in France? Your 3D Printer will print it for you in under a minute. Delicious.

4. Permanent Puppies

Puppies are cute (by design). That’s why we all fall in love with them (we are programmed to look after something cute like a puppy or a baby). But after a while they grow up. We still love them but they’re not nearly as cute. So we get another puppy or kitten and the cycle continues.

So how about inventing a breed of dog that never grows up? A permanent puppy.

It stays small, cute and adorable all its life. But you still have to feed it (it’s not a toy).

5. Wound Healing Cream

Surely one day they’re going to invent a way to heal cuts and wounds significantly faster. Some kind of material that you just rub onto a wound (or a super-plaster of sorts), and within minutes the wound is healed and there are no scars.

It would have to involve a highly anti-bacterial substance, as well as a means to keep the wound moist, and a means to repair the skin and close the wound.

6. The Cure For The Common Cold

Here’s one that we all can hopefully agree upon. We’re living in the twenty-first century, and yet there is still no cure for the common cold. A cold brings you down: it makes you snivel and sniff and all congested for days.

And no one wants to get near you. There’s nothing pleasant about it. So surely one of the things that should be invented, and fast, is the cure for the common cold.

I mean how difficult can this be? Far more difficult things have been discovered before!

7. Infinitely Flavorsome Chewing Gum

So you’re chewing your gum. Chewing and chewing. You’re really enjoying the flavor: it’s fresh, pungent, rich and sometimes even a bit spicy. And after a few minutes it’s gone, evaporated. You might as well be chewing on a piece of rubber; it tastes just the same. That’s why we say that someone should invent infinitely flavorsome chewing gum.

You can chew for hours if you like, and it will still have exactly the same flavor on the 100th minute as on the first.

Scientists, get chewing on this idea.

8. Batteryless Devices

One of the most painful things in the world is your mobile phone going dead. Especially when you’re out, with no access to a charger, and you need to receive a text or make a phone call. And smartphones are particularly bad at battery life. The problem is the very concept of the battery that requires an external electric power source to charge it.

In fact scientists are working on this very thing. A team from Georgia Institute of Technology have invented a way for devices to self-power based on body movements. This would be perfect for medical devices that are embedded inside the body, but also for mobile phones, radios and other things that require constant charging.

9. Non-Hangover Alcohol

Not sure how well this one would fly; some people love bragging about how drunk they got the night before. But others would love to enjoy alcohol without feeling incredibly hung-over the next day.

So imagine if they came up with a substance that could be added to the alcohol that had absolutely no effect on the taste, but made you feel all jolly and well-rested the next day.

Problem with this is that it might encourage people to drink even more. Hmm…let’s move onto the next one.

10. Oxygen Particle Extractor

Ok I’m not sure how possible this is. But that’s the whole point of being inventive and creative: it’s to go beyond the possible. So this idea is a means to prevent the need to have a cumbersome and heavy oxygen tank with you when you dive in the ocean. Besides that, there’s always the worry that it might run out.

So the idea is this: extract, in real time, the Oxygen particle from the Hydrogen particles as you breathe it in. This allows you to stay underwater for as long as you want, without worrying about having to come up (ok you’ll need to come up at some point, I guess).

In Conclusion

Well that’s it folks, the 10 things that should be invented. We hope that gets your imagination buzzing.

January 31, 2013
Invention Book Review: How to License Your Million Dollar Idea

Title: How to License Your Million Dollar Idea: Cash In On Your Inventions, New Product Ideas, Software, Web Business Ideas, And More

Author: Harvey Reese

Cost: $15.72 At Amazon

Book Review

This is the now third edition of what has become regarded as a venerable basic bible for many inventors, whether rightly or wrongly. The focus of How to License Your Million Dollar Idea is extremely broad and incorporates, in its title and its contents, both “inventions” in the traditional sense, whether consisting of tangible products or software such as smartphone apps, and the far more amorphous and intangible licensable ideas like new methods of doing business on the web.

That said, the author may have weakened the focus of a generally valuable book by trying to do too much in one book. The sections discussing the licensing of software, for instance, have a bit of a flavor of being simply slapped together and added at the last minute without any real depth. The topic is clearly worthy of more detailed treatment, and the reality is that the intellectual property issues involved there, by themselv es, are relatively complex, and almost necessitate a fuller treatment addressing some of the ways in which patent, copyright, trademark, and trade secret principles can overlap and interact.

There is increasingly, it seems to me, a real need for a book that focuses in on the sole topic of generating, protecting, and licensing new methods of doing business on the Internet. While the once rising star that was Groupon, for instance, may have become somewhat eclipsed recently, the story of how that concept was developed and how it so quickly became popularized has a host of lessons for the creative inventor lurking in it. Groupon was hardly the first such phenomenon, and the next Groupon, or Facebook, or… is undoubtedly out there, today not more than a glimmer in a person’s eye. This book hints at that amazing prospect, but does not really attempt to fully explore it.

How to License Your Million Dollar Idea has also been criticized by some for engaging in a bit too much promotion and marketing of the author’s own invention marketing services, but I think that any mature and worldly wise reader will be able to spot such statements and take them with a grain of salt.

The strength of the book is its description of the licensing process, drawn from the author’s own experiences and knowledge of the contemporary marketplace. It is less helpful when it comes to methods of generating ideas, although he does spend some time on it, and gives some concrete historical examples, but without a truly fleshed out analysis of the brainstorming process that led to the spark of invention. This may be less troubling for those of us who already have a head clogged full of innovations, who really need specific knowledge as to how to convert all that creativity into a marketable commodity.

How to License Your Million Dollar Idea is also relatively weak on concretely presenting steps to take to protect a licensable idea or concept. In summation, while there is much of value here, this may not necessarily be the best book to begin with if you are new to the subject area.

(Paperback and Kindle Editions are available of the book).

January 30, 2013
How To Invent Something
So I take it you are wanting to know how to invent something. So let’s cut to the chase.

In this article I’m going to give you some techniques that you can apply almost immediately in order to invent something new, original and potentially brilliant.

Follow the process below.

How To Invent Something Right Now

You are more likely to invent something in an area or topic that interests you than some random field or topic you haven’t given much thought to.

You are also more likely to be innovative around an expertise you already have, because you (often unknowingly) have in-depth knowledge that others don’t necessarily have.

So to start I want you to start off by getting an old-fashioned notepad and pen.

Step 1: What Inventive Areas Interest You

Got it (seriously you need to get it and do this right now). This is your canvas. Now write down 5 fields or areas that interest you. You can be quite general for the moment. Golf, football, cooking, anything that comes to mind.

Don’t whine that you have no interests; everyone has interests.

Write down the first 5 that pop into your mind.

Step 2: Choose The Best One

I want you to look over that list, and seize upon one of the keywords that gives you the most excitement. You should actually feel this excitement as you look at it.

If you don’t get an immediate rush, then rush over to the next keyword.

Choose one right now.

Step 3: Get More Specific

You are wanting to know how to invent something specific right? So you need to get more specific. You need to drill-down. Go to the next page on your notepad, and write down sub-topics that fall under the main topic you chose. So for example, say you chose ‘Golf’. Sub-topics might include ‘golf putters’, ‘golf balls’, ‘golf shirts’ and the like.

Write down as many as come to mind, there’s no limit, but try get down at least 10 sub-areas here.

Step 4: Choose The Best One (again)

Similar to Step 2, you should now choose one of the topics you wrote down that generates the most excitement.

You’ll be amazed at how some sub-areas of something you think you love are completely boring to you, and others generate interest and excitement.

So choose one that does for you.

Step 5: Draw On The Visuals

Ok now you’ve chosen the niche area, and I’m going to show you how to invent something in your chosen niche. It all starts by thinking visually. Your subconscious brain, the place where ideas and inventions flow from, is an incredibly visual system (think of your dreams).

So I want you to go back to your notepad, and start drawing. Drawing you say, aghast? Yes drawing (or sketching or doodling). There’s no one watching you, and no-one cares if you’re not Rembrandt.

Sketch out several pictures of your chosen topic. So if you’re chosen ‘potato peeling’, then sketch out what comes to mind for a potato peelers. If you’ve chosen ‘dog snacks’ then sketch out some of those.

Already you might start getting some invention ideas coming to mind. But don’t worry if you don’t, they should come soon enough.

Got those sketches handy?

Step 6: Improve Upon It

This is really the crux of the entire how to invent something process. How can you improve upon what you have just sketched?

Ask yourself the following questions (and try and answer them). Do this slowly and carefully. This is the part where you are most likely to learn how invent something from your chosen niche.
1. What little thing can I tweak?
2. What is superflous to the design?
3. What can I add to this that will make it more efficient?
4. What are the problems with this ‘thing’? What slows it down, what hinders the process, what is essential to it?
5. What part of this can become a spin-off to another product?
6. What other, completely new uses can I make for this product? What is the craziest (and funniest) way to use this product?
7. If I was teaching someone else how to invent something new relating to this, what would it be?
If you go through these thoroughly, ask yourself these questions and ponder them deeply, something inventive should come of the process.

Conclusion

I hope you have learnt how to invent something new from the process above. Repeat it as often and as much as you like. You’re likely to get better and more creative each time.
January 29, 2013