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How to Protect an Idea
Ideas, while they abound and spring forth from our imagination, are not legally regarded as physical ‘things’. As a result, there are only really two ways to go abou it if you are wanting to find out how to protect an idea: You can keep them a secret, or you can develop a product that results from the idea in secret.

If you can distribute the product without anyone else knowing what exactly is in it, and create a brand the product that is successful, you may be able to build a business this way. A lot of recipe based businesses like Kentucky Fried Chicken’s special spices and Coca Cola’s recipe for coke are regarded trade secrets and haven’t had been legally protected in any other manner.

There are different ways to protect products of ideas if that is your goal.

How To Protect an Idea With Patenting

Patenting is for inventions that are not only new but also not obvious to the average person in the field. The more common patents are:
1. Method patents, which detail a way of doing something that is unique;
2. Utility patents which patents the actual object in all of its detail;
3. Design patents are less common, and protect the outward appearance of an object or device. A good example of an item that gets a design patent would be a new style of baby bottle that does not function differently from the standard baby bottle but has a special grip.
4. The truth is, in the US at least, you cannot protect an idea in ethereal form. That’s not what patenting, trade secret and copyright are about. What they are about is protecting the physical or conceptual applications of those ideas. Ideas cannot legally be protected through the patenting process or any other. It is considered anticompetitive and counterproductive to society.
There are, however, multiple ways to protect the work related to your ideas. If you are wanting to know how to protect an idea then the best way is to develop the idea into the application of that idea. The patent system allows you to protect novel and non-obvious inventions that come from your ideas. There are three types of patents.

A Few More Details About Patents

Utility patents: Provide protection for machines, compositions, methods or processes and things you make that are novel. Computers, some biotechnology and pharmaceutical products, even a creatively made pulley or a special way of taking medication in a given order could qualify.

Design patents: for items where what they are made of is generally known, but the overall presentation is unique. A baby bottle that has a specific bottom that prevents it from falling over during use would qualify.

Plant Patents: Plant patents are for asexually reproducing plants. Plant patents protect the genetics and specifics of plants. Some of the genetically enhanced plant products fall under this category, like bacteria resistant grain.

Copyrighting

Copyright allows for long term protection of artistic endeavors, especially combinations of words and sounds. The terms for which copyright can be renewed are up to 2 terms for periods of 28 years. Previously copyright ran for 100 years or so, but a court decision ended the longer time period.

Trademarks

Trademark protection is for images associated with a brand. Trademarks often include symbols combined with words and colors, like the unique packaging orange combined with shapes and the word Tide used by Tide detergent.

In Conclusion

How to protect an idea requires taking that idea and conceptualizing it or making it into something tangible. Use a combination of patenting, copyrighting, trademarking to do that. Also consider keeping the idea as a trade secret, which prevents you having to reveal it in any form to the public at large.
January 15, 2013
Inventor Software

We’ll talk here about the best inventor software on offer for use in different steps of the invention process.

Brainstorming Inventor Software

bubbl.us

bubbl.us is a free and very easy to use online mindmapping service. Within minutes you can have a nice looking and multi-leveled mindmap. You can also save, print, import and export your mindmaps for modification or future reference.

Microsoft Visio

We’ll speak about Microsoft Visio in more detail in the Patenting Software section below. Besides 2D design work, Visio can be used for mindmapping and brainstorming, and thus is great for the creation and ideas phase of the invention process. It allows you to build keyword hierarchies in an easy to use and organized manner, and moreover lets you order them and re-organize them if necessary. The advantage of using Visio as opposed to, say, just sketching a mindmap, is that you can always come back to your brainstorm and modify or re-engineer it at a later stage.

SmartDraw

SmartDraw is an excellent piece of software which we’ll talk more about below, and it works in similar fashion to Visio for brainstorming purposes. Check out some SmartDraw brainstorming examples to see how easy it is to brainstorm and mind-map with it.

Inventor Software For Sketching

In this section we’re going to look specifically at tablet apps. Tablets such as the iPad have become incredible tools for inventors, as they allow you to sketch ideas on the go using powerful sketching software.

Sketchbook Pro

Sketchbook Pro is one of the best iPad and Android apps out there for invention and idea sketching. It provides multiple types of digital pencils, brushes, markers so that you can freely sketch your ideas and innovations in a way that works for your needs.

Check out this video to give you a good overview of how Sketchbook Pro works:

Paper by FiftyThree

Paper is another amazing sketching app that focuses on simplicity and a provides a minimalist design interface. It allows you to organize your sketches into digital ‘books’ in a very cool and effective way. Use it if you like to make lots of quick sketches: it beats a physical sketchpad any day.

Invention Product Design Software

Google Sketchup

Google Sketchup is a simple yet powerful piece of 3D modeling inventor software, and the free version is a brilliant way for inventors to start modeling their designs into 3D objects. Some of its features include conversion of 2D designs into 3D, exact measurements for prototyping and production purposes, grouping and ‘clipping together’ of distinctly designed components, texture and color surfacing, animations and presentations of designs and even a feature to cut away and go inside a design.

Google Sketchup comes with lots of free training videos (as well as real-world training), and here’s an example of one to see how it works:

AutoDesk Inventor

Inventor software AutoDesk Inventor is a state-of-the-art 3D CAD design system that allows you to design, control and even simulate your inventions before building produce physical prototypes (sometimes even preventing the need to product a physical prototype). Its numerous features include converting 2D CADs into 3D, assembly design, motion simulation and mold design. It also comes with video tutorials that guide you through all features of the inventor software package.

AutoDesk Inventor software comes in different versions and different prices, and it’s one disadvantage is that it’s quite pricey (from $999 onwards). However if you use it to its full capabilities, and put in the time to learn how to use all its features, it’s worth the price. Take advantage of the free trial if you want to test it out.

Here’s a very long but very comprehensive demonstration of using the invention software to design an LED Lamp:

Patent Design Software

Microsoft Visio

If you have a PC with Windows installed, one of the best patenting design software you can get is Microsoft Visio (available in both standard and professional versions). Visio is a very powerful design tool, which is primarily used for 2D design work. As a result it allows you to draw up virtually anything that would be required for 2D patent document diagrams. This includes patent diagrams, flowcharts and scenario charts. Visio allows anyone to build professional looking designs using existing templates and pre-drawn shapes. For the most part you can do these designs without requiring the services of a professional draughtsman.

If you are wanting to get to grips with patent designing, particularly when using a design tool like Visio, it always helps to do a patent search.

Here’s a Visio demonstration video:

SmartDraw

SmartDraw is the non-Microsoft equivalent of Visio, and some people prefer it because it is an independent company and regularly updates its software (Visio has much longer product cycles). It can do virtually everything that Visio can do in terms of 2D design work, and includes hundreds of templates and pre-designed shapes. In other words its a great piece of inventor software, and allows you to come up with professional looking designs without having to be a professional designer.

Here’s a SmartDraw demonstration video that will give you more of an idea of its capabilities:

That’s it for now folks. Come back to see updates and new inventor software as it becomes available. Good luck!

January 11, 2013
What To Invent

In the inventing spirit, but not sure what to invent? Let’s get those inventive juices flowing, and spur you into the realms of innovation.

The ‘What To Invent’ Game

One of the best ways to invent is to see it as a game. That way you’ll be having fun, which increases your chances at being creative. You can play this game by yourself or with a group of people. If you’re playing with a bunch, you can either play individually or in small groups.

Step 1: Find A Theme That Interests You

One of the best ways of determining what to invent is to begin with a particular area, theme or topic in mind, and innovate from there. You are always going to invent better when you start with something that interests you. There’s no point in trying to come up with ideas for door knobs when you really don’t care too much about them.

For example, if you are a pet lover, pick the topic of pet inventions. If you like golf, think about golfing inventions.

Step 2: Write Down What You Know

Get hold of a pad of paper, do this on your computer, or record your voice, and start jotting down (or speaking out) every kind of product or device related to your theme that you know of. The trick is not to think too much about it, but just to write (or speak). Try do this as fast as possible, and write down up to 20 existing products. If you like, you could even sketch them (which is really good for the visual part of your brain).

Step 3: Write Down What You Don’t Know

This may have already cropped up in the previous step, namely that new ideas for what to invent could be coming to mind based on the products you have reviewed. This step is about recording them in the same manner as step 2, and also as rapidly as possible. The trick is not to censor yourself. Just write down, sketch or speak as fast as possible whatever comes to mind by way of improving on a product or invention that already exists. Even if it makes absolutely no sense, get it down. For instance if you wrote down ‘golf bag’ in Step 2, imagine the varieties of what to invent around this can come up for you in this step.

If nothing comes to mind, don’t get stressed or concerned. It’s probable that things are coming to mind but you are thinking ‘that’s not a good idea’ or ‘that doesn’t relate to the products at hand’. Close your eyes for a few moments, let go of all thoughts and feelings, and start step 3 again. I promise you that ideas will start springing to mind.

Keep going with this step for at least 20 minutes, and I remind you not to censor yourself and let the ideas flow freely.

Step 4: Review

Now go back and take a look at what you’ve written (or spoken). Take a look at the existing products, and take a look at the ideas of what to invent that you have written down. You may be amazed at what you see, even if you thought it didn’t make much sense at the time.

If you are playing this in a group, now’s a good time to share with the others what you’ve come up with.

Play it again, and again

Each time you play the what to invent game by yourself or with a group, you’ll get better at it. It can be really fun to play in a group as everyone encourages each other and it can be really fun.

January 9, 2013
How To Be An Inventor
It’s not a cliche, nor is it some kind of marketing gambit, to say that anyone can be an inventor. Learning how to be an inventor is a process just like learning how to ride a bicycle or learning how to draw. Some people say that you need some special kind of ‘talent’ to draw, that it is innate and that you can’t ‘learn’ it. Yet many books, courses and educators have proven that anyone can draw.

The exact same logic applies to inventing and the invention process. You can learn how to be an inventor using a combination of techniques, practice and persistance. But firstly you need to know what an inventor actually is.

What Is An Inventor?

An inventor is someone who improves upon the order of things. He or she helps people achieve their goals in a better, more efficient way. Sometimes he or she improves people’s lives by an order of magnitude.

Here is the mindset that an inventor (i.e. you) should have:
1. Something exists, or people do something in a particular way;
2. I can improve upon this thing or the way that people achieve a certain goal.
That’s it. That’s the essence of becoming an inventor. But to actually innovate requires a certain mindset, namely one of creativity and imagination.

Cultivate a Creativity Mindset

Our brains are incredibly complex and enormously powerful, and can be honed to become adept at virtually anything. Becoming an inventor requires what one might call having a creative mindset. It is about switching on creativity like you would switch on a tap. I’ll go through a few simple ways to do this below. These can all be used together, or used individually.

How to be an inventor with effective creativity techniques

The 24-hour Notepad

Creative people are constantly scribbling or doodling away on a notepad (or even on their phones or iPads). Sometimes it’s the scribbling that leads them to be creative, and not necessarily that being creative that causes them to scribble. Compulsive scribbling should become a habit of yours if you want to learn how to be an inventor.

Get a notepad that is small enough for you to carry it around with you day and night (keep it next to your bed if you wake up in the night with an invention idea), and write down ideas or thoughts as they come to you. If you wait and think you’ll write it down later, chances are you’ll forget (just like having a dream). Jotting down thoughts and ideas reinforces the neural networks in your brain responsible for innovation and originality. So the more you write, the more creative you can become.

Bear in mind that you must refrain (as much as you can) from censoring anything that pops into your head. Censoring is like a killer to ideas. If you stroll past a washing line and suddenly have a brainspark for an automated line that covers itself when it rains, don’t think ‘Oh that’s a dumb idea, no-one will ever go for it’. Just write it down, and in doing so send a message to your brain that it has the right to be inventive and must continue being so.

Think Visually By Doodling

This leads on from the notepad. It is important for you to doodle in learning how to be an inventor. Doodling does incredible things for the imagination. I’m not talking about becoming the next Rembrandt, I’m just saying you should cultivate a habit of thinking visually and thereby developing your imagination. So doodle, sketch, copy out the neighbor’s lemon-tree, and develop a visual understanding of the world. A secret in the art of how to be an inventor is that inventors keep their eyes wide open (in their mind’s eye and through their real eyes). They look at the world, they see how things can be improved, and they draw a heck of a lot. Often the difference between an old and a new invention is a very minor improvement or difference between two things, and that difference sometimes comes about by sketching the first invention (say a pen) and then adding something extra to it (say an eraser on the pen or a way to clip the pen onto a sleeve). Doodling is a simple but effective trick in discovering how to be an inventor.

Do Puzzles

Puzzles you say? Puzzles help you to stop thinking in words (you can’t talk your way through a puzzle can you?) and to think in terms of abstractions. What’s one of the best ways to fall asleep at night if you have thoughts racing through your head? That’s right, a puzzle. It immediately causes you to switch off the words and switch on the imagination. How to be an inventor is a bit like solving a puzzle isn’t it? The puzzle of how to do something better or in an original manner.

Improve Upon the Order of Things

Now that you can start becoming more creative, it’s time to also apply some logical process to the inventing process. And that is thinking deeply about how things can be improved upon.

Read up and study existing patents

There’s a whole section on this site dedicated to patents and patenting. And why am I daft in suggesting that patents will teach you how to be an inventor (aren’t patents boring legal documents and not creative exciting processes of imagination?). Well the simple answer is that you learn a lot from experts. And inventors who have patented inventions (often tens or hundreds of times), are experts. See how they make a case for the uniqueness of their inventions, see how they explain how things are currently done and how their invention has improved upon the order of things. Once you read a lot of patent documents, you begin to see how inventors’ minds work (see the definition above to see how it links to this mindset).

Pick something, and see how it can be improved

Anything can be improved. Learning how to be an inventor requires the ability to see something, identify problems with it, and think of ways to improve upon it.
January 8, 2013
Invention of Soccer

Many people are interested in the invention of soccer. While many sports have their roots in recent history, some sports can be traced back thousands of years to civilizations in the B.C. era. Organized athletics have been practiced by just about every civilization, from rudimentary team games to global tournaments found today.

The game of soccer is played worldwide and has become one of the greatest sports inventions of all times. While no single person can be credited with the invention of soccer, it is known that the game of kicking a ball around on a field that eventually developed into soccer was played over 3000 years ago.

The invention of soccer likely has its roots in ancient Asia. The earliest form of a soccer type game is dated back to Japan in the year 1004 B.C. Exact statistics and content of the game is unknown except that a ball was kicked around from one person to the next. In 50 B.C., a Chinese text was written which explains a game played between two teams, one from China and one from Japan.

The game described was very similar to that of soccer, and the text can be found in the Ethnological Museum in Germany. Greece and ancient Rome were also said to have played a game resembling soccer, but back then a team could consist of anything up to 27 players. One point of certainty is that the game we refer to as soccer was played in 611 A.D in Kyoto, Japan.

The invention of modern soccer, or football as it is better known outside the US, traces back to Britain over 1500 years ago. It is rumoured that the soccer ball consisted of inflated animal bladders and, allegedly, human heads. Solid proof confirming the latter practice has not yet been found. Claims exist that animal heads were also used as soccer balls, to represent a fertility rite during the pre-Christian times.

It is still not certain from where exactly the invention of soccer originated, who created the rules or how many players a team should have, but by the year 1066, soccer was a well established game. Various countries would play soccer according to their own set of rules but the idea of scoring a goal in your opponents net was a basic rule everywhere. During the 1300s, soccer was a street game and played much more roughly than it is today. In 1314 King Edward II outlawed soccer, but the game was renewed a decree by leaders that followed.

The invention of soccer underwent numerous adaptations over the next few centuries, but the invention of modern soccer has its roots in 19th century England. Several football clubs existed, each playing their own set of variations of the game.

In order to facilitate tournament play, they collaborated with each other to form a firm set of standard rules. On October 26, 1863, several clubs met and jointly established the first “universal” code. This code formed the basis of the rules that are used globally today.

From the simple kicking of ball, to the sport we know today, the invention of soccer has led to one of most popular sports in the world. The most well known professional soccer league is called the ‘MLS’ and every four years there is a soccer world cup.

All the history behind the game just goes to show, not all playing around is just a simple game that goes unnoticed. Football was created for fun and entertainment; today many people aspire to become of the world’s greatest players.

January 3, 2013