Top Niche Ideas

How many times have you actually paid attention to all the things that surround you? Take your eyes away from the computer for a moment and take a good look at all the items that you can see from your chair. You’ll see a computer mouse. You’ll see a lamp, containing a light bulb. You’ll see a plastic bottle with a cap that contains a label and some soda. All of the things around you are monumentally more complicated than they appear. The objects did not appear out of thin air. A person or team of people had to think about the object, had to draw out a plan to create the object, and had to find a way to manufacture it.

Those people are called inventors. In history class, you’ve probably heard your teacher or professor ramble on about the historical importance of invention and they may have touched on some of the most legendary inventions ever developed. In doing this, they didn’t communicate just how important inventors are to modern society. Think about how many people were involved with the creation of that bottle of soda. Hard to fathom, isn’t it? Each part, when it was first developed, was probably vastly different from what it is now. Bottle caps were initially not made out of plastic. Soda recipes were probably revised many times before the drink that you’re sipping on became a finished product. Even the earring or earrings you may be wearing are the result of many human revisions so that their posts don’t hurt your ears.

Inventing something is one of today’s greatest miracles, and to be an inventor may be easier than you think. You could be lucky enough to have a science or engineering background and a keen eye for things that need to be improved upon. If that’s the case, you’ve probably already considered becoming an inventor, or have invented something, and hopefully have it patented. Chances are, though, that you’re not that person. You could be a housewife who spends most of her time at home taking care of the kids. You could be a trades worker who spends many hours in front of a machine doing quality inspections. Or maybe you’re a college student with a vast body of knowledge but very little idea what you want to do when you ‘grow up’. You could fall into virtually any category and successfully patent something that sells like wildfire. All you need is an idea, some passion and a plan. Most people have a subject or two they can profess they’re an expert on, and in many cases, they have opinions about how their experience with it could be improved. The opinions are the seeds that can grow you into a patent-holding inventor.

You may find the process of getting a patent and marketing a novel product difficult to understand. However, you may be comforted to know that the US Patent and Trademark Office – the regulatory center of intellectual property in the United States – approves nearly half of the patent applications they receive every year. That’s because the people who submit the applications are passionate about the product they invented and are ready to effectively prove that their creation is special. In your life, have you ever had to fight for something that you sincerely believed in? Well, the practice of inventing and patenting will tap the energy source you used to fight, and will exercise it so that you become a stronger person. Look at the invention process as a way to obtain personal growth instead of a nuisance. And remember, you aren’t alone: there are plenty of resources available to the aspiring inventor. You might just fall in love with wearing shoes like Thomas Edison once wore.

An inventor may have an idea, but the process of getting the idea patented takes quite a bit of work. He or she must determine if the idea has been thought of already, must produce a convincing argument that it’s an original creation and must be ready to classify the invention based on US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) regulations. An inventor may be turned off to the idea of getting a patent for this reason. Nevertheless, going through with developing the invention and marketing it could lead to others reproducing the idea and the original inventor losing revenue. A patent protects that from happening.

In order to avoid having to navigate through complicated patent laws and regulations, it may be beneficial to hire a patent attorney to help out. A patent attorney is very knowledgeable about patent law and is certified to specifically work on patents by the USPTO. In addition, in a lot of cases, patent attorneys have backgrounds in science and engineering, so they know quite a bit about inventions in both fields. In addition, they can handle matters beyond patents for the inventor, including copyrights they may need for information about their product, or trademarks for the business that could be formed from the invention.

Choosing a patent lawyer may be difficult. There are over 28,000 patent attorneys and about 9,000 patent agents in the United States today. Many specialize in particular types of patents, whether they happen to be for machinery, software, pharmaceuticals or even for organisms. Many inventors use the internet to search for the right patent lawyer. The USPTO has a search engine that will let the inventor find patent lawyers that are geographically closest to them, and websites like Findlaw contain directories of patent lawyers and law firms to browse through. Be sure to research the lawyer by asking them how many cases they’ve taken on, what their specialty is, what services they can provide, etc. In addition, if you know people who are in an industry that produces similar products to your invention, you may want to consult with them to find a good attorney.

Usually the services a patent lawyer provides are concrete. They know the USPTO very well and work with them on a regular basis. They will be able to use contacts in the USPTO to expedite the patent filing process. They will be able to assist you with filling out the application so that there aren’t mistakes. They will be able to take your idea and write it up into a description that follows the rules of the USPTO. They will clarify just how to construct drawings of your creation so that they are clear and properly show what your creation can do. They will warn you what to expect once the patent has been filed. Finally, they will be able to hold your hand once the patent has either been accepted or rejected.

Yes, patent lawyers are not inexpensive. Their fees vary, but usually they fall in the $5,000-$10,000 range. However, if you decide not to get a patent lawyer, there are many opportunities for the inventor to make a mistake. Their patent may become delayed or rejected because the application was not in its best form. Investment in a patent attorney is very likely to be returned in the long run.

Every inventor interested in patenting their creation is curious about whether their idea has been developed before. Another question that may roll around in their head is “will the public really want to use my creation?” To answer these two important questions, the inventor must conduct market research.

Market research, to someone who is untrained in marketing, may sound tedious and difficult to do. Nevertheless, just about any one has the faculties to do market research. The first step in doing your research is to ask many questions about what you’re looking to find. This brainstorming process will get you geared up to delve through many sources to answer the questions.

Market research is best done in phases. The first phase is focused on obtaining information. At this point, it’s best that you sit down in front of a computer and surf the web, or visit your library to review periodicals and trade journals related to your invention. The bites of information that should be most important to you are what your idea could be sold for and at what volume it should be manufactured at. When you decide to sell it, these numbers will give you a good estimation about how to sell it.

Other important pieces of information include who your target audience will be, where they live, how your advertising will reach them, what time period will they buy the item, and how many they’d be in the market to purchase. These tidbits of knowledge sometimes do turn up for free by market research firms, which can be doubly valuable to you. If a market research firm isn’t involved, you can draw your own conclusions, which is far, far better than going about selling your product without any market knowledge at all.

Once you’ve gathered information about similar products to yours, you must consider the trends of the overall marketplace. If you plan to sell during a speculated recession, you should expect not to get much return on your investment. If a cure for diabetes has recently been discovered, then your sugar-free treat invention probably won’t sell as well as you’d like. It’s very difficult to predict what the market trends will be like during the early stages of an invention’s life, but it’s useful to get idea of general feel of the market at first and alter any expectations you may have as the market morphs.

Another part of market trend measurement is the evaluation of competitor success. The average corporation today is in a constant state of change. If a competitor of yours has shown steady growth in their revenue, the trend could be a good sign that selling a similar product will result in equally high profits. If the competitor has shown a decline in profits, then it’s up to you to find out why. It could easily mean that the popularity of their product has gone downhill for a very good reason, one that may affect the sale of your product.

Market research may be difficult if your invention is not like any others that exist out there. Still, you want to do research to ensure that it hasn’t been patented before and didn’t sell. Again, trade journals and periodicals are the best place to evaluate this. It may be best to visit a college library that has a good journal selection to explore to get this information, because buying articles online can be very expensive. Nevertheless, there is always a vast amount of free information available on the web to peruse through. Be sure to know your favorite search engine and use it!

The United States is considered the melting pot of the world. Different upbringings, races, classes and ethnicities define what the United States is as a society. The innovation that can be found in such a diverse people as the United States means that their creations are equally as widespread. As a result, Americans invent hundreds of thousands of new things every year, inventions that are useful worldwide. The strides in the field of communication have made the global economy accessible to anyone who wishes to market a product. However, the complexity of inventions and the nearly infinite marketplace can make an entrepreneur wary about introducing a new product. He or she can create a new item and file for a patent in his or her home country, but what will guarantee that someone on the other side of the world hasn’t already patented the idea? Well, in 1970, a conference in Washington was held to address that problem. The Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) stemmed from the conference and was brought into force on January 21, 1978. To date, 139 countries have agreed to abide by the treaty.

The PCT procedure, also known as the international procedure, is a method by which an inventor can obtain intellectual property protection for a patent in a number of countries. In order for your patent to be examined by the international procedure, you must fill out a patent application. The PCT application is slightly different from the patent application in your home country, and is available through the World Intellectual Property Organization in Geneva. You will need to indicate which countries you would like to have your patent application submitted for. Once you’ve filled the application out and submitted it, your application will be put through two phases, the national phase and the international phase. The international phase is the period in which the application is filed through your home country’s patent office. The national phase follows the international phase, and constitutes the period that the application is forwarded on to the patent offices in the countries that you indicated you wanted intellectual property protection from.

There are certain rules about filing a PCT application. First of all, you must file the application once and in your home country only. The PCT application must be filed in the same language that was used in your regular patent application. You must also pay a fee for each country that you’d like to review the application, up to five countries.

Once your application is submitted, an International Searching Authority is assigned to the PCT application to determine if prior-art exists that matches the invention. The authority will write an opinion during the international phase about the patentability of your invention and whether it would be worth entering the national phase in the countries that were specified on the application. The national phase will require an investment from the inventor in order to cover filing fees in each country and translation fees if applicable.

An inventor has the option to exercise the PCT application up to 31 months following the filing date of the initial national patent application. This will leave the inventor extra time to obtain a national patent and observe what the manufacture of the new product will bring. If word spreads overseas and generates interest in the product, then it may be ideal for the inventor to submit a PCT application.

There are things that all inventors have in common: an idea they’re passionate about, the resourcefulness to put it to life, and the organizational skills to put it on the market.  These skills aren’t always easy to come by, but to the skeptical idea holder, they aren’t far out of reach.  One may hear success stories about past inventors of the light bulb, the telephone and even the personal computer.  All of these individuals made fortunes that can often not be fathomed by the average human being.   Since fortunes aren’t often obtained, it’s rather simple to think that the average inventor won’t get very far.  Since all inventions require a financial investment and a time investment, the easy notion is to think that there are better things to do with your time.

This just plain is not true.  Although it is apparent that there are many walls to hit, getting your first patent can be a lifetime achievement.  Think of the pride and sense of accomplishment you’ll feel if you convince the gurus of patent law – the US Patent and Trademark Office – that you, yourself created something that might be beneficial to the lives of people today and for years to come.  When you visit a friend’s home, or even a stranger’s home, and you see your product in plain view, ready to use, you can enjoy the dignity of knowing that something you did make this person’s life better.

The best way to attack the job of coming up with a patentable idea is to be realistic.  You may have conjured up a mixture of chemicals that cleans your bathroom better than any other product you have tried.  You may have dreamt about a toy that you would have loved to play with as a child, but it still doesn’t exist.  Or, you may have watched someone struggle with a machine for the umpteenth time, knowing in the back of your mind just how you would change the machine so that it worked better.  All of these thoughts could be invention-related epiphanies, you just have to entertain the thoughts a bit longer than the few seconds you normally would.  Therefore, to become an inventor, you must give yourself some credit for being momentarily innovative, and expand those moments to much longer periods of time.

You also have to have a tangible plan.  Draw out a schedule and estimate just how much money and time this will cost you.  If this novel idea of yours requires materials or time that you just can’t obtain, then it may be that you’ll have to reconsider whether to build on it or not.  Also, be sure not to expect too much success at once.  It’s very likely that the first time you put together your signature concoction, it won’t work.  When Thomas Edison was developing the light bulb, he had to develop hundreds of different kinds of burnable filaments before he came up with the carbon-based filament found to be the longest lasting.  Edison, in inventing the light bulb, did more than just light up our homes, he became an inspiration and an example for inventors everywhere, demonstrating persistence, dedication and flexibility.

Despite the fact that Edison was definitely a special case, many inventors have followed in his footsteps.  Everywhere you look in your life you’ll find many items that have been patented.  Think of each of those items growing from an idea just like yours, and you’ll have the confidence to go out there and make your idea part of history.