Inventors learn basics of marketing on the market

Eureka!

After countless trials, you've finally created a product that will revolutionize the modern world. But what do you do now?

Eighteen local inventors discussed their next steps at a recent inventors' roundtable at the Kalispell Area Chamber of Commerce. Linda Brander, director of the Montana Department of Commerce's Small Business Innovation Research Program, and Marti Elder, a licensing agent and commercialization consultant from Bozeman, led the discussion.

The inventors were encouraged to share their ideas by discussing what problem their products addressed. Ideas included everything from a product to prevent deer from eating yard and garden plants to an Internet server designed to protect people from being taken advantage of online.

Inventors were only allowed to share vague descriptions of their products.

"Confidentiality plays a top level of priority in the world of inventing," Elder said. "Hold on to your ideas as long as you can."

It's not fear of someone stealing an idea that makes confidentiality so important, she said. Instead, confidentiality may protect an inventor's right to a patent.

In the United States, patents are granted to the first person to invent a product, not the first person to file for a patent.

As soon as an inventor makes his product public, even just by telling another person about it, he has one year to file for a patent.

If an inventor needs to tell someone about his product, he should get that person to sign a confidentiality agreement. The agreement should be drawn up by a patent attorney or intellectual property attorney, Elder said.

After an application is filed, it can take anywhere from 18 months to six years to actually get a patent, Elder said. An examiner has to approve the application, and it's not uncommon for the examiner to say no.

"Don't let that panic you," she said.

If the examiner shoots down the application, inventors should get an attorney to argue it, Elder said.

With attorneys' fees, marketing and production, inventing is not for the poor.

"You can't get into this industry without money," she said. "You've got to look at it as kind of an expensive hobby."

Inventors will save money if they focus on one invention instead of trying to promote all of their ideas at once, she added.

"You have to pick a first invention," Elder said. "Pick the one that you can be really passionate about."

Once inventors receive a patent, it's time for marketing. Jeff Cowie, a Whitefish licensing agent, had suggestions on how to do so effectively.

"You may have the best product in the field," he said, "but it's virtually impossible to bring it to market on your own."

The worst thing an inventor can do, he said, is send a letter to a company or person simply asking them to take a look at the product.

"Those usually end up in the garbage," he said.

Instead, inventors need to be specific and describe exactly what they'd like the business to do with the product.

Inventors should be contacting people about promoting their product, Elder said, not the other way around. They should be wary of companies who contact them. Invention promotion companies are often scams.

"They're feeling you out for how much money they can get out of you," she said. "If they approach you, it's a sales pitch."

It's easy to fall for the scam, though.

"They are the most brilliant salespeople that I have ever seen," Cowie said.

Invention promotion companies do their best to make inventors feel secure, Elder said. They want people to trust them with their products, which are as dear as children to most inventors.

"You want your child to be loved. You want your child to be accepted. You want your child to do well. And that's what they tell you," she said.

Larry Adams, a Whitefish inventor, successfully circumvented an invention promotion company. When the company contacted him, promising to promote his product, he asked them for a list of the top-10 products they've successfully brought to market.

"It was almost an immediate hang-up," Adams said, grinning.

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or by e-mail at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com