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314 | Patent it YOURSELF of interest from the company, you will probably be faced with the waiver question. My comments in the previous discussion cover how to handle this problem. Before you send a model, get an advance written commitment from the company that they’ll return it within a given time. You should send your model by certified, insured mail, return receipt requested, and make follow-up phone calls as appropriate. The book, Made to Stick, by C. and D. Heath, tells how to compose a “sticky” message—one that the recipient will remember. The key is to present your message as a simple unexpected, credible, concrete, and emotional story. I. Making an Agreement to Sell Your Invention If you sell your invention to a manufacturer/distributor, the next step is to sign an agreement of some sort with the manufacturer. The question thus arises, what will be the terms of the agreement, exactly what will you sell them, and for how much? There are many possibilities. These are covered in Chapter 16, which deals with ownership and transfer of patents rights. J. Manufacturing and/or Distributing the Invention Yourself For reasons stated earlier, manufacturing and/or distributing a product embodying your invention yourself—unless you already have manufacturing experience, a plant, and/or distribution facilities—is very difficult. Besides, you can spend your time more effectively selling your invention or patent application, rather than dealing with manufacturing and product- marketing problems. If you do plan to manufacture and/or distribute your invention yourself (Routes 6 or 7), I strongly suggest that you learn about the subject thoroughly beforehand so you will know what is involved and which pitfalls to avoid. The best place to obtain literature and reading material is your local SBA (Small Business Administration) office, which has scads of literature and aids available to apprise you of the problems and pitfalls. They even have a service that allows you to obtain the advice of an experienced executive free; ask for a “Counseling Request from Small Business Firm” form. Nolo publishes an excellent book, How to Write a Business Plan, by Mike McKeever, which tells potential businesspeople how to assess the costs of a proposed business, how to draft a business plan, and how to obtain sufficient start-up money. 1. Financing the Manufacture of Your Invention Financing any manufacturing venture of your own is a separate and formidable problem. If you have an untried and unsold product, most banks will not lend you the money to go ahead. However, if you can get orders from various local firms, the bank may lend you the money. Thus a local testmarketing effort on a limited scale may be desirable. For obtaining money to finance untried products, read, All I Need Is Money, by Jack Lander (Nolo), for a good treatment of this subject. Generally you’ll need a money lender who’s willing to take risk. Such a person is usually termed a “venture capitalist” (VC). A VC will lend you money in exchange for shares or a portion of your enterprise. Pratt’s Guide to Venture Capital Sources (listed in Appendix 2, Resources: Government Publications, Patent Websites, and Books of Use and Interest) is the most popular source of VCs, but most libraries have other VC resources. A comprehensive list of venture capital resources and related information can be found at the Venture Capital Resource Library (www.vfinance.com) and at Clickey.com (www.clickey.com) where you should search using the term “venture capital.” Also the Venture Capital Hotline, 408- 625-0700, will provide you with a list of suitable VCs for a fee (about $75). However, VCs won’t lend you money on the same terms a bank would. Because of the higher risks they take, they demand a much larger return—namely a piece of the action. Also, they’ll want to monitor your company and exercise some degree of control, usually by putting their people on your board of directors. A thorough discussion of the pros and cons of working with venture capitalists can be found in the Nolo book, How to Write a Business Plan, mentioned earlier. While most VCs are companies or partnerships, sometimes wealthy individuals finance inventions, so if you have a rich uncle or know of a suitable patron, include them on your list. A recent development in the VC field is the “Incubator VC.” This is a VC that provides several different inventors with offices, labs, and/or a manufacturing area in a special building, called an “innovation center.” For example, in San Francisco, Pier 38 provides space for numerous incubators. Also the VC may provide technical, financial, and marketing consultation, as well as other services, until each nurtured enterprise is ready to leave the “nest.” The sources in the preceding paragraph, as well as inventors’ organizations (Chapter 2, Section F), will give you the names of Incubator VCs; they are sponsored by academia, state and federal governments, and private organizations.
ChaPter 11 | How to MARKET YOUR INVENTION | 315 2. Prepare a Business Plan To obtain venture capital to start a business based on your invention, you’ll have to prepare a business plan—a presentation that tells all about your invention, the market for it, and how you plan to use the money. Again, How to Write a Business Plan is also recommended for this purpose. Other sources for guiding your business plan writing are the SBA (www.sba.gov), Business Plan Pro (www.bplans.com), and Business Owner’s Toolkit (www. toolkit.com) 3. Distribution Through Mail Order or the Internet Mail order is often an easy way for an individual to distribute an invention, whether the inventor makes it or has it made. An excellent guide is How I Made $1,000,000 in Mail Order, by E. Joseph Cossman (Prentice-Hall). Once your mail order operation starts bringing in some cash, you can branch out and try to get some local, then regional, then state, and then (hopefully) national distributors who handle lines similar to yours. There are two principal ways to contact your potential customers: • magazine/media advertising, and • direct mail advertising. If you’re interested in the latter, order the Dunhill Marketing Guide to Mailing Lists from Dunhill International List Company, Inc., 444 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10016. You can also try to use a mail order distributor. Many mail order houses will, if you send them a production sample and they like it and feel you can meet their demand, buy your production. There are 15,000 mail order houses in the U.S. and they depend upon novelty and Mom-and-Pop suppliers, as well as large manufacturers. They’ll put in their own ads, manufacture, and distribute their own catalog, and thus are valuable intermediaries for many garage-shop manufacturers. Walter Drake & Sons, Colorado Springs, CO 80940, is one of the largest, but you can obtain the names of many others by looking for ads in Redbook, House Beautiful, Better Homes and Gardens, Apartment Life, Sunset, Holiday, etc. These mail order firms are always looking for new gadgets, and most of their products come from small firms. While many of them will purchase quantities of your product outright, some will want to take them on consignment, which means they do not pay you until and unless they sell it themselves. The Internet also provides a vast marketplace for marketing a device, but getting potential customers to your site can be difficult. One solution is to offer your device on eBay or to set up a store at Yahoo.com or Msn.com. See Section 5, Publicity, below, for other ideas. How to Get Funding From a Venture Capitalist Ari Zoldan, CEO of Quantum networks, a venture capital (VC) firm, provided some tips for soliciting VCs in a 2008 issue of Popular Science. Among his suggestions: • Don’t send a letter and don’t email. Call the CEO and pitch your invention briefly. Be sure to sell both your product and your skills and expertise. • Look for a VC that will be actively involved. • Review the VC’s track record and funding. • Don’t be intimidated by VCs and never give the VC a majority control of your company. • Get the VC to sign a nondisclosure agreement (Form 3-1 in Appendix 7) and always bring a business plan and prototype to your meeting. 4. Utilize Government Services If your invention is or can be used in a product that the federal government might purchase, contact the General Services Administration, Federal Supply Service, (800- 488-3111 or www.gsa.gov). Tell them that you’re offering a product that you feel the government can use. They’ll send you appropriate forms and instructions. Also, don’t neglect your corresponding state and local purchasing agencies. If you have an energy-related invention, the Department of Energy may give you a research grant if the National Bureau of Standards gives it a favorable evaluation. Contact the U.S. Department of Energy, e-center (http://e-center. doe.gov). 5. Publicity Publicity will sometimes be of great aid to you before you get your invention into production, and is invaluable once it’s on the market. Assuming it’s not yet on the market and you’re either looking for a manufacturer or distributor, or thinking of manufacturing or distributing it yourself, publicity can cut both ways. As stated, many manufacturers like to get a secret head start on their competition and thus
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N O LO ® “The best roll-up-your-
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Products & Services Books & Softwar
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15th edition Patent It Yourself You
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Acknowledgments My deep thanks go t
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2 3 4 The Science and Magic of Inve
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8 9 E. Make and Sell Your Invention
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13 14 J. The Patent Laws of Other C
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Your Legal Companion A. You Don’t
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Nondisclosure Agreement 1. Parties.
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About the Author David Pressman is
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