Posts Tagged: "inventing"

Understanding Substitutes: Is your invention desirable to consumers?

Frequently one of the most challenging aspects of inventing is determining what need a particular invention fills. This is not to suggest that inventors do not know what their invention does, why they created the invention in the first place, or how it might be used by a potential consumer. Instead, one of the biggest issues I see is inventors not having a good grasp of why an invention might be desirable from the viewpoint of consumers who might be perfectly willing to use various substitutes.

10 Critical Pieces of Advice for Inventors

There really is no one-size-fits-all approach inventors can follow, and there is no inventing roadmap to success that will work in all cases. Notwithstanding, there are certainly a number of things that can and should be understood if an inventor is going to pursue inventing as more than a hobby. By understanding some basic but critical information at the outset…

Advice for Young Inventors

Inventing success for young inventors comes when they are passionate, inspired and dedicated, which is not unlike success in all areas of life… While passion is required, knowledge is also absolutely necessary. A true inventor will learn everything they can about each aspect of the field, from the technology, to the business, to the competition. You must become an expert on your invention and on the field you’ve chosen to pursue.

America innovates most when government stands behind a stable property rights regime

America innovates most when property rights are stable and government gets out of the way so risk takers can dream the impossible and then go accomplish those dreams… The patent system all three branches of our government has created over the last 12 years has increasingly incentivized the stealing of patent rights rather than engaging in an arm length negotiation with innovators who possess patent rights that are supposed to be statutorily presumed valid. This is antithetical to basic, fundamental principles embedded throughout American law, and basic economic principles. Laws are supposed to be certain, stable and understandable. When that occurs externalities and transaction costs are low, which allows for the bargaining of rights to ensue.

Increasing Number of Women Patent Holders Can Spur U.S. Innovation, Grow the Economy

On Thursday, December 1, I attended the Innovation Alliance’s panel on Closing the Patent Gender Gap: How Increasing the Number of Women Patent Holders Can Spur U.S. Innovation and Grow the Economy. The panel, which was moderated by the Licensing Manager for the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, Jennifer Gottwald, Ph.D discussed the recent findings of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research and their report on Equity in Innovation: Women Inventors and Patents that was released on November 29, 2016, which explores how women are “underrepresented” among patent holders as well as their relative success in being granted patents when they do apply for them.