This month, Inventors Digest features interviews with two heavyweights in American enterprise: Priceline inventor and chair of Walker Digital, Jay Walker; and Mark Cuban, founder of Broadcast.com, owner of the Dallas Mavericks and a regular on the popular TV series Shark Tank. Both men are billionaires who believe the patent system is flawed, but for different reasons. Both want to “fix” the patent system—with diametrically opposing methods.
Many inventors believe the way to get a company interested in their inventions is to write a letter – and then hope they receive an invitation to begin negotiations. This seldom happens. If you want to get your invention licensed and receive royalty payments, you have to deliver more than a “me too” product.
Licensing your invention is a lot easier if you can show that it’s selling. That means you have to produce a small quantity of your product. Nice idea – until you learn that a plastic injection mold costs $25,000. Now what? Fortunately, there are options. You just have to know where to look.
Sarah Miller Caldicott is the great grandniece of the legend himself, Thomas Alva Edison. She’s a motivational speaker, head of business consulting firm PowerPatterns and the co-author of Innovate Like Edison: The Success System of America’s Greatest Inventor. In this interview Caldicott reveals what she’s learned and gained from being related to an icon of innovation.
In business and the corporate world, it’s all about who know. When bringing an invention idea to fruition, it’s all about whom you partner with. There are tangible, financial benefits to finding partners who offer services vital to your new company’s survival. These services may come from a designer, prototyper, patent lawyer or manufacturer. In other words, they bring to the table more than the deep pockets of a venture capitalist or angel investor.