Have you ever had an idea and wondered “If you put the time into it, would it actually fly?” If so, you are not alone. Many people have ideas that they suspect could be successful. But without taking proactive steps, these inventions usually never come to fruition, and as a result, some of the best ideas remain just that – ideas.

This site aims to provide some tips as to what steps you should take to act on your idea and turn it from mere thought into reality.

Step 1: Do some homework. Conduct a quick online search.

While conducting your own online search is by no means exhaustive and cannot substitute a professional patent search, using a search engine, such as Google, will give you a good idea of the prior art surrounding your own idea or invention.

If you happen to find the exact product already being sold, you will be glad to have saved thousands of dollars on business, commercialisation and intellectual property costs.

Even if you find a similar invention, bringing it to the attention of the patent attorney will help them draft you a patent specification that will best protect the inventive edge of your product and make your intellectual property all the more powerful and valuable.

Step 2: Book an appointment with expert patent attorney to discuss an IP strategy that’s best for your idea.

Here is your chance to ask the experts if your idea “has legs”. The key to knowing if an idea is worth moving forward with comes down to its ability to fulfill two requirements:

  1. Can it be protected from copying, and
  2. Can a professional commercialisation strategy be built around it?

Patent applications

Patent applications should be professionally prepared by a patent attorney. Whether a patent will be truly effective in keeping competitors away from your idea depends, amongst other things, on how well your patent application is written and to what extent it is drafted to anticipate how copiers might try to get around it.

It is critically important to spend the time identifying the angles that competitors may come from and covering the idea as thoroughly as possible from the outset. The risk of spending significant amounts of money on patenting your idea, only to be side-stepped by a clever copier at the last moment, needs to be mitigated as much as possible.

Patent attorneys are experienced in dealing with new inventions and coming up with creative ways to draft specifications to ensure maximum protection for your idea.

Commercialisation or ‘go-to-market’ strategies

If you want to prove that your innovation works, turn your idea into a prototype or product or sell your intellectual property, you may need to:

  1. raise capital through a government grant or investment,
  2. negotiate a licence agreement, or
  3. enter into a strategic partnership.

To function as a successful business, you will need to be able to identify and know the inner workings of your market, create a corporate identity that will leave the right impression on your clients and customers and follow a sales strategy that will convince buyers to do business with you on the right terms.

Engaging the services of a commercialisation expert will gain you valuable insights into the market that help you save time and maximise the returns on your intellectual property investment. You will be able to benefit from their experience and avoid making mistakes that could cost you your competitive edge.

Important Disclaimer: The information on this website is not legal or professional advice. The information may:

  1. not be correct;
  2. only relate to the law or practice in a given country; and/or
  3. be outdated.