Don’t underestimate the power of prototyping. Too often the benefits of prototyping an invention idea are either played down or completely ignored when “experts” take to the issue. But turning your idea into a product sample is probably the most important part of inventing. And if you’re not convinced here are five reasons why you should prototype your invention:

1. It makes patenting easier

For nearly 100 years, our culture has seemingly indoctrinated us in TV, books and movies to believe that we must patent our ideas immediately, lest they fall to the wayside or be stolen. It’s an expensive and complicated process to take a rough idea and turn into a patent, so you wouldn’t want to enter that $10,000-plus arena without being prepared, right?

Prior to 1880 you actually had to have a prototype built before it could be patented. While it’s not required now, a prototype is a great way to show that you built it first. Also, building your idea flushes out the benefits and features that may not have been immediately evident in the rough idea stage. Now, you can patent that too, which may offer the best protection in the long run.

The whole process of building a prototype will greatly help you in writing, drawing and preparing your patent papers, which can save you a lot of money.

2. Smooth out your invention’s design

Once you build your idea into a prototype, now you can actually test it in real life situations and look out for design or concept flaws. Some may want to go down the route of building a “virtual prototype.” Now, there are a lot of benefits to having an artist create a 3D rendition of your product — you can easily present it to potential buyers, you can get a low-cost idea of how it will look when it’s built and you can decide on visual features of the product — however, a “virtual prototype” can’t be tested in real life. Remember, the real world and the virtual world are completely different and 3D drawings don’t account for everything.

In addition, this is a great time to work out the aesthetics of a product, creating it for the right user. For example, you want to ensure its size isn’t too big or threatening, if the user will be a child. Alternately you want it to be durable enough if the user is a mechanic.

Again, all of these tweaks and such will help you out when patenting, because you know what to draw up and what the benefits are of these features, which didn’t exist when it was in its conceptual phase.

3. Prototypes determine the manufacturing process

Eventually, whether it’s you or the person you manage to sell the idea to, someone is going to have to manufacture your invention. Prototyping helps you determine what manufacturing processes will be required. Will it be injection molded, ultrasonically welded or die cut?

Perhaps you even have to determine a new manufacturing technique to build your invention, but you’d need to know all of this before a manufacturer or a corporation will get on board with your project.

4. Determine the right price

The only way to truly have an understanding of what the product will really cost to manufacture is by prototyping it. As with understanding how it will be manufactured, you’ll know what the materials to build it will cost or at least what types of materials you’ll use.

When prototyping, think about the price point you want to meet. Of course, this should probably have started in design, but later you may realize you need to build it at a lower cost. It’s a good time to analyze the design and find ways it can be changed to meet a better cost of manufacturing. And, since you’d be doing this before you patent, you’ll save yourself by not having to file an amendment or a second patent.

5. It makes it easier to license or sell

With a prototype ready, you’ll not only be able to explain what the features and benefits of your invention are, but also be able to get into the numbers to explain the costs of manufacturing, how it will be built, etc. This shows professionalism and companies respect it. For too long, a lot of well-meaning people have submitted ideas as just paper drawings or hard-to-interpret patents, but having the prototype ready to go — a bonus if you have sample packaging — means a lot.

There is also the fun factor when presenting a real, working prototype. Now, they have something to talk about, look at and interact with. This gets marketing people going when thinking about how to advertise and showcase it. It also lets everyone handle it and determine for themselves the validity of your project. Demonstrations sell.

So, don’t underestimate the power of prototyping your invention. Not only is it at the very heart of inventing, but it will greatly benefit you in the long run.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/464509

You Might Also Like the Following Related Posts:

• Great modern invention ideas : the Apple iPod
• Inventions by the Chinese
• Naming Your Invention Idea

OK. So you’ve got great invention ideas for a product and you’ve asked a few people about it and they think it’s great. And you’re starting to see the dollar signs flashing. Great!

You’re pretty sure you’ve never seen anything like your invention idea before, but how do you know that no one’s producing it and you just haven’t seen it? Or maybe someone invented it already and patented it but it never made it into the marketplace.
Here are some simple tips on how you can find out so that you can finally start moving from idea to profitable product:

1) STORE RESEARCH
• Go to a store where your product would be sold and search for your product.

• Ask the sales person if they have a product that performs the tasks that yours would.

• When describing your product idea, always remember to be discreet and somewhat vague.

• Ask the sales person about buyers for your product category. You could say, “I’m doing research on this product category, would you know the name of the buyer who purchases this product category for you store?” If the sales person doesn’t, ask them who would know.

• Call buyers in your product category. When calling a buyer, you could say, “My name is ___________ from _______ company (you need to make up a company name). We are considering developing a product in your buying category and we (always use “we”) would like to know if you’ve ever seen anything like it?” Then give a brief description of the way your product works.

• It is a calculated risk to describe your product idea to store buyers since they have not signed a confidentiality agreement, so keep it as general as possible. However, store buyers are generally so busy that they have no desire to run off and make your product.

2) PATENT SEARCH
Of course a more immediate and thorough way to find out if your product idea already exists is to do a patent search.

• Sooner or later you will have to do a patent search if you intent to patent your invention. Contrary to popular belief, a patent does not protect “ideas,” it protects the specific mechanical way you carry out that idea (Utility Patent) or the specific way any product looks (Design Patent).

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/5401647

You Might Also Like the Following Related Posts:

• Applying a patent for your fab invention idea
• Evaluating your Invention Idea - Post #2
• Naming Your Invention Idea

This article is dedicated to all of the fascinating Chinese inventions that have been created. China is a country rich in culture and tradition and the inventions are no different. When researching this topic the only thing I was certain of was that the Chinese invented fireworks sometime around the Han Dynasty (206-220 BC). While that is true this great country invented so much more. Here are some of the more popular Chinese inventions:

Paper and paper currency – Some say the Egyptians used paper as far back as 3500 BC. However, conventional paper as we know it, made from wood pulp, was devised around early 80 AD by the Chinese. Older forms of paper were expensive and inefficient to be used by the masses but this invention of paper allowed everyone to have access to the benefits of paper.

Gun powder – The invention of gun powder was sometime around 300 AD. The primary reasons for gun powder were for wartime efforts but the more popular reason was to mix the gun powder with other materials like strontium (red) and bromium (green) for the awesome release of fireworks into the air.

Wheelbarrow - The useful invention of the wheelbarrow was sometime around late BC and early AD. Different Chinese people claim the invention but the primary reason for the invention of the wheel barrow was to transport goods to injured soldiers in wartimes. It proved to be a very useful tool in dangerous times and it was actually kept secret for some time.

Parachute – The 1st known parachute documentation was in 90 BC by China and they had working parachutes as early as the 12 Century.Later, Sebastian Lenormand created a parachute in 1783. However, the infamous sketches are the work of Leonardo Da Vinci a few centuries earlier. Also, rumor has it that sometime around 850 AD a Arab man, Armen Firman, jumped from a tower in Spain and his device used for his landing malfunctioned and actually acted like a parachute. He only had minor injuries

Gas deep drilling - Around the 1st Century, the Chinese developed a method of drilling boreholes up to 4,800 feet. These devices were extremely large stones with doughnut centers stretching from the surface to the drilling depths. They would use hemp ropes and bamboo cables to extract brine from water for salt. The natural gas was transferred using bamboo tubes.

Compass – The invention of the compass by the Chinese actually began around the Qin dynasty (221-206 B.C.). as a fortune teller tool. They would use lodestones, which contained iron oxide mineral that naturally aligned to a north-south direction, to build their fortune teller boards. Someone figured out they were better for marking directions and created a slab with help from the constellations for markings.

Crop rows for farming – Sometime around the 6th Century BC the Chinese developed a more improved method of farming. By aligning the crop fields in straight rows and “in tune” with the natural wind patterns crops grew better and faster. Why? When the wind blows the crops aren’t damaged because there is a nice straight path for the wind to roll through.

Origami - Origami by definition is folding paper to create a piece of art. So if the Chinese invented paper then they probably had a hand in inventing origami. However, it is mostly understood that the Japanese took the invention of origami to the level it is now. This was done around 6th Century AD and later popularized by a book in 1797, “How To Fold One Thousand Cranes”. Then again in the 1950′s, Master Yoshizawa Akira brought it to the mainstream we know of today.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/4105509

You Might Also Like the Following Related Posts:

• A New Invention Idea Is Always A Magical Moment
• Shield your fresh invention ideas
• Great Invention Ideas Come At Random Times

If you are planning to manufacture and sell your invention ideas on your own, this is where your prototype and design plans will be really useful.

Manufacturing can be simplified when you have a working prototype of your invention. To start out, contact a manufacturer who is familiar with new product development. That way, you will have the benefit of designers and developers who can identify and fix design flaws. They may even offer a more effective design solution for your product.

If you are going to have your manufacturing outsourced, that is, manufactured by a foreign company, make sure you research the company very well. Look them up online, research them at the library, find out everything you can about them. Foreign sourcing is a big undertaking, and should not be taken lightly.

However, if you have a solid CAD design, a competent manufacturer can produce your product with little trouble. A CAD design will also make it easier to divide your plans among multiple manufacturers, to avoid giving the entire design to one manufacturer if you choose to do that.

You can contact the Thomas Register at 1-800-699-9822 or check out their website thomasnet.com to find thousands of manufacturers for everything you can possibly imagine. You can visit alibaba.com or made-in-china.com for lists of foreign manufacturers for your particular product.

When discussing your product with manufacturers, always ask if they are open to reducing or waiving up-front production costs for a percentage of future profits, or perhaps some other deal that they may have in mind. Sometimes a manufacturer, seeing the potential in a new product, is willing to produce the product on more creative terms for a guarantee of future business, or a percentage of sales (sort of like royalties).

Be careful, however, with deals like this. Be sure to put a ceiling on the duration of this deal, otherwise, you can end up locking yourself into a lifetime partnership.

The deal should just be financially worth the manufacturer’s effort. For instance, I may offer fifty percent of future sales up until production costs are covered, and then ten percent of sales for a year after, with a guarantee of the manufacturer remaining my exclusive provider for the next year. There are literally trillions of ways to put deals together; it’s all in how you negotiate it.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/778853

You Might Also Like the Following Related Posts:

• Fresh Thinking = New Invention Ideas
• Easy Invention Ideas - How To Have Them
• Evaluating your Invention Idea

Want easy invention ideas? Dreaming up new products and inventions is fun, and it can be easy too. Try the following two techniques and soon you’ll have a list of new ideas.

Easy Invention Ideas – Start With What’s There

One of the easiest ways to create new ideas for inventions is to look at what already exists and find a way to make it better. You can start with things in your own home. These may even be the most marketable ideas – consider how many new kitchen gadgets are sold every year.

Look at the toaster, for example. How could it be improved, replaced, or the need for it eliminated? You could eliminate the need for it if you designed a stove with a toaster built into it. You could replace it with something like a waffle iron. You could improve it by making it faster, perhaps with a combination toasting element and microwave heater.

Look around the room and pick out any item you see. Imagine how it would be if it was bigger, smaller, faster, slower, or different in some way. As I write this, I am looking at a calculator. I would like to be able to talk to it. I could just say, “Mortgage payment, $140,000 loan, fifteen-year amortization, six point five percent interest rate,” and it would announce, “$1219.56 per month.” With all the latest voice-recognition technology out there, this is possible.

Want an easy way to create a lot of new invention ideas fast? Make a list of everything in your house. Then work your way down the list, thinking of some way to improve or re-invent each item. If nothing comes to mind, move on to the next item on the list after a minute or two.

Easy Invention Ideas – Use What Irritates

What irritates you? Do you hate the way the ice builds up on the edge of your roof? Do you get annoyed with the way the dog slops his water and food all over the kitchen floor? Annoyances and irritating things are not just problems, but excellent opportunities for easy invention ideas.

Suppose you are tired of burning your tongue on hot coffee. What could save you from this irritation? Perhaps a cup with a built-in thermometer that shows green once the coffee has cooled enough? Maybe a cooling device to set a coffee cup in, like a small fan that blows across the coffee when the cup is set on the device?

Annoyed with the necessity of brushing your teeth so often? Maybe there is a Teflon-like coating that could be applied, so food wouldn’t stick. If it was anti-bacterial as well, you might avoid plaque even after days without brushing.

Looking at what is around you and imagining small or large improvements is easy. It also isn’t too difficult to train yourself to look at problems as opportunities. There are dozens of other techniques that will give you easy invention ideas, but start with these two simple ones and you can have a hundred new ideas today.

By Steve Gillman

You Might Also Like the Following Related Posts:

• Necessity is the mother of all invention
• Inventions are innovative and creative
• Shield your fresh invention ideas

As far as modern invention ideas go the iPod is defiantly up there with the best of them and has infiltrated many of our homes. The ‘iPod’ is the name giving to a series of music player manufactured by Apple Inc. The iPod itself has evolved to its many forms since it market debut around a decade ago.
The invention ideas around the Apple iPod made its launch extremely successful and it is now considered the best music player in the world today. One of its main attractions is its ability to store thousands of songs and the sound quality.

Who invented the iPod?

The iPod originated from a business invention idea dreamed up by an independent inventor, Tony Fadell. Together with his concept he got together with Apple to create the iPod which launched in 2001 and changed the world of MP3 players overnight. The iPod was an immediate success overnight and laid down Apples mark as a market leader in the sector as well as paving the way for the success of the iPhone and iTouch.

You Might Also Like the Following Related Posts:

• Creative Invention Ideas
• Invention Company Scams - How They Work
• The Warning Signs of Invention Scams

Obtaining invention ideas safeguarded by a patent provides the patent owner concrete legal protection under the law. A patent adviser or legal professional can let you know your patent invention legal rights. Invention ideas which are not safeguarded by a patent and also that are not patentable can be utilised liberally by everyone. This will lower the invention commercial price. Due to this single reason many organizations look at patent protection essential for their own invention ideas as well as invention ideas submitted to them. As a result, those corporations might possibly expect inventors submitting inventions to them to look for invention patent protection under the law issued by a patent in the same way any business would be asked to guard their own personal invention ideas.

There can be intricate legalities linked to invention ideas submitted to big firms. Those difficulties can consist of joint development of the same invention. A further case could be two inventors that developed the invention together, including trade secret ownership and confidential rights. A patent agent or lawyer can help you with those issues before applying for an invention patent.

Your patent agent or lawyer may advise or recommend that you obtain an issued patent before submitting your ideas to a big company. However, some companies may allow you to disclose and discuss your idea after an invention patent application has been filled. Keep in mind that the businesses that you submit your ideas to prior to an invention patent has been issued could possibly be under no obligation to keep your idea a secret. They can also be under no obligation to neither pay anything nor refrain from making use of your idea while the invention idea is being looked at unless a written contract has been finalized.

Following a invention idea evaluation, the organization might be under no obligation to keep your invention idea a secret or may well not refrain from using your invention ideas unless an agreement in writing is concluded. The main benefit of getting an issued invention patent is the fact that it entitles you to privileges as defined by the invention patent claims. Depending on the company that you’re submitting your ideas to, a patent agent may desire you to obtain an issued invention patent before submitting your inventions to a company for evaluation.

However, there are numerous other companies that will review your invention ideas before an invention patent application is in progress. Or, prior to an invention patent has become issued. For instance, the organization Plaid will accept invention ideas before an invention patent has been issued. The company Plaid does agree to keep your invention idea submission confidential and will not use or disclose the invention idea to any third parties or workers of Plaid, other than those Plaid employees who participate in the review of the idea submission, unless such disclosure is required by law or unless Plaid acquires knowledge of the submissions prior to your disclosure thereof.

Sears is an exception, and may accept invention ideas prior to an invention patent have been issued or an invention patent application is in process. However, by considering a submitted idea, Sears may not obligate itself to pay any payment whatsoever for its use of un-patentable ideas. Also, Sears may make no commitment that your submitted invention ideas shall be kept a secret or confidential. It may be necessary for a large company like Sears to refer your invention idea submission to a number of persons at Sears or at third parties, such as suppliers and manufacturers, that have business dealings with Sears. Think about this when submitting your invention to big businesses, because this may be required to thoroughly assess your invention idea submission. You might think about including a period of limiting time for the organization that you’re submitting you invention idea to judge your invention idea. A proper period of time may be 45 to 60 days to evaluate an invention submission.

Make certain to determine contact with the business that you’re submitting your idea to prior to delivering any kind of material or detailed information of your invention idea. Validate if the company will take outside idea submission and exactly what the company’s submission rules and guidelines are. Don’t forget, until a legal contract is signed and finished, your only legal privileges in and to the submissions stay with you.

You Might Also Like the Following Related Posts:

• These are ideas that just pop-up in one’s mind rather freely without much contemplation
• Why Prototype Your Invention? Five Reasons To Build Your Idea
• How to Get Invention Money

If you are looking for a very lucrative business venture to get into why not try your hand at inventing. In fact inventors are some of the wealthiest people today. Invention ideas can literally generate billions of dollars. One of the reasons why inventing is so lucrative is that not everyone will come up with that winning idea. In fact most people will never even think about inventing anything at all.

The reality is also that inventing is not for everyone as only a few of us will ever be able to dream up, design and actually create that product that has never been done before. The hard part of invention ideas is the actual idea as designing the product can easily be done using computer software.

There are also times when invention ideas are not just something that is created from scratch with entirely new materials or never before seen products or designs. Sometimes inventions come from the combination of 2 or more products that are already in existence which results in something completely new. This is more evident in the use of technology and computer software. Where 2 or more programs are combined in order to create a more efficient and often times a more user-friendly program.
Thinking outside the box is obviously an inventor’s best friend; even though some of the best invention ideas are born out of necessity. These days the work of inventors is recognized encouraged and this can be seen by the vast majority of resources and information that is available to inventors. So what are you waiting for, dream up something today.

You Might Also Like the Following Related Posts:

• New Drug Inventions
• Why Prototype Your Invention? Five Reasons To Build Your Idea
• How to Get Invention Money

Thomas Edison Inventions made by Thomas Edison himself is one of the greatest inventors of all time. Inventing for him was not just a hobby or something that he happened to stumble upon; it was as I like to call it his art. So devoted he was to inventing that he had a record of over 1,093 patents. Inventing for him was his life’s passion and his business.

From Thomas Edison inventions brought such things as the Light bulb. One of the greatest inventions; the light bulb, was really not an invention at all but merely an improvement of an idea that had been around for around 50 years. You see when he created the light bulb people had already been working on the idea of electric lighting and some had even developed some form of electric lighting already.

Thomas Edison’s real invention was making it practical and safe for home use. What is also fascinating about this whole process is that the light bulb was not the only real invention in the process; as he also had to create a number of other practical solutions to make electrical lighting possible. These are:

1. A durable light bulb,
2. Light sockets with on-off switches.
3. The parallel circuit,
4. The underground conductor network,
5. An improved dynamo
6. The devices for maintaining constant voltage and
7. Safety fuses and insulating materials

Source -http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bledison.htm

Basically inventors can look towards Thomas Edison inventions and use his lessons learnt and successes and get an idea on how he made inventions not only benefit the world as a whole but also himself.

All great invention ideas seem to come to their benefactors either at the strangest times or in the strangest places. For Krug, it was 1999 and he was sitting in L.A.’s Universal Studios Hilton talking urine with Ditmar Gorges, a German engineer who wasn’t too thrilled about the amount of water a single flush of a urinal wastes. Of course, Gorges had already invented a waterless urinal that relied on gravity (when we said he wasn’t thrilled about the water waste, we meant it). So Krug figured he could put his VP experience to work and sell Gorges’ flush-less invention along with the replaceable cartridges that sat in each of the waterless receptacles. And it just so happens that cable tycoon Marc Nathanson, Al Gore, and Jeff Skoll (the first president of eBay) dug Krug’s sales pitches and were down with waterless flushes.

view more invention ideas

You Might Also Like the Following Related Posts:

• Fresh Thinking = New Invention Ideas Cont… Part 3
• Applying a patent for your fab invention idea
• Evaluating your Invention Idea