Of the more than 7.5 million patents granted in the United States since 1790, a few have had enormous impact on our lives while at the same time bringing fame and fortune to their inventors. The electric lamp, the transistor radio, the internal combustion engine, and the telephone come to mind quickly. Some inventions have had little or no impact on our lives, such as the Pet Rock and Cabbage Patch Kids, but have brought fame and fortune to their inventors. But the vast majority of inventions dreamed up during the last 200 plus years have created no recognition or financial gain for their inventors. Why? Because these concepts were never commercialized. They have left no trace. You can bet that when the inventors applied for their patents, the inventions seemed like terrific ideas. But then something happened—or, more accurately, didn’t happen.

What didn’t happen was the sale, and nothing happens until something is sold. Just as invention begins with resistance, so does the sale. When resistance is overcome, the idea finds a successful structure and the sale is made. The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Cashing In On Your Inventions, now in its second edition, is about overcoming resistance, at myriad levels.

In addition to learning how to license and protect your inventions, it is my hope that The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Cashing In On Your Inventions encourages you to …

The book you hold in your hands is written for the ordinary person with the extraordinary idea and the yen to turn it into royalty income. It’s a classic American landscape: real fortunes being made by plain folks with an itch, courage, indefatigable entrepreneurial spirit, and, of course, the better idea.

Look upon this book as a chart, superimpose your own lines on it, and use it to navigate the stormy and hazardous waters of protecting, licensing, and commercializing your inventions.

One important note: The chapters on the protection of your intellectual property are provided as a primer. Intellectual property laws, regulations, filing fees, and so forth are in a constant state of change, pushed and pulled by technologies, marketplaces, and special interests. These chapters are not designed to take the place of competent legal counsel, which I encourage you to seek.

It’s a requirement today that you have the full gamut of tools, e.g., a computer (PC and/or laptop) with high-speed Internet connection, e-mail accounts, BlackBerry or other smartphone, multiple-line phones for conferencing, voicemail/answer service, scanner/copier/fax, and so on. This way, you’ll be able to keep pace with industry.

From August 23 through September 26, 2008, my wife and I took a 10,616-mile road trip from the Eastern seaboard, north to Canada, across the TransCan from Thunder Bay to Vancouver, and then back East. Between our BlackBerry and FedEx, our business didn’t miss a beat. Such tools allowed us to combine business and pleasure and never lose touch with the pulse of our enterprise. Get wired!

If you’ve researched inventors and inventions, you know that discrepancies, especially over inventorship, come with the territory. More than 100 years ago, Ralph Waldo Emerson realized this, too. He explained it like this:

I choose to use the terms inventor, developer, and creator interchangeably, as does the industry, to signify one or more of the independent creative forces behind an invention, usually a signatory to a patent application and a license agreement and, as such, a participant in any advances and royalties.

John Melius, president of Inventor’s Network of the Capital Area (INCA), prefers to refer to himself as a product developer. He feels this designation puts him closer mentally to commercialized product. An inventor is typically dealing with something that’s not a complete product ready for sale. It’s an interesting approach.

Many inventors quoted in this book are extremely prolific. To be fair to everyone, including my editors, who need to deal with space considerations, I decided to list only one invention credit per inventor. The exception is A. Eddy Goldfarb, the dean of independent toy inventors, who has licensed more than 600 inventions since he left the Silent Service after World War II.

The process of invention and innovation isn’t easy to analyze. Therefore, I did not even attempt to list co-inventing credits. Anyone who knows this business understands that it would be an impossible task. Therefore, if you see more than one person credited with the invention of a product, there’s probably a good reason for it.

While my book focuses mostly on the independent inventor, this is not to imply that there’s a lack of creativity or inventiveness at the corporate level. It is just the opposite. Many outstanding concepts come from in-house. Furthermore, the contributions made by R&D and marketing executives to outside submissions often make the difference between success and failure. This has surely been the case with my products.

It is my most sincere hope that this book will intrigue, inform, entertain, and turn on a light bulb or two for even the most seasoned inventor.

This book is highly organized. But you’re an inventor, and when things are too organized, well, you get the picture. So go ahead; just plunge in and browse around.

I’m sure I have missed a few things here and there, but as Goethe noted, “Incompleteness stimulates.”

Curtain up. Light the lights.

Richard

This book is designed to be a quick-access resource companion to accompany you throughout your journey from “What if?” to the deal and, hopefully, to riches (although financial reward must not be the only thing that drives you). The sequence is a step-by-step blueprint for overcoming your fears, building your confidence, taking pride in your ideas, adapting to change, taking risks, and taking control.

Part 1, “How to Get Your Great Ideas on the Road,” shares America’s greatest traditions and visions as a center of innovation and free enterprise, home to the world’s most prolific, daring, and successful inventors and entrepreneurs. Through all the wit, color, and home-spun truth I could muster, it asks you to look at yourself and realize that, on any given day, your dream can come true. But for this to happen, you must have the “Dare to Go,” know where to go, and what to do when you get there.

The most important part of this book appears in Part 1. Here I instruct you how to avoid being ripped off by carrion birds who toil under the guise of reputable invention marketing services. Further along in Part 1, you analyze whether it is better to license your invention or seek “adventure capital” and build a business.

Part 2, “How to Build ’Em and Make ’Em,” explains the various types of models and prototypes and how to get them made, if you don’t have golden hands. The second chapter in Part 2 addresses how to set up manufacturing. This information is invaluable whether you make a product yourself or license your invention.

Part 3, “Getting High Marks,” assumes you have opted to go the licensing route. (If you want to establish your own manufacturing and marketing operation, take a giant step to Part 4.) Part 3 explains how to find the right company for your invention, get through its door, pitch the idea, and make a deal if you’re fortunate enough to be afforded an opportunity. It’s all about the hunt!

Part 4, “Goin’ for the Gold,” takes you to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Learn what makes the USPTO tick and how you can take advantage of its invaluable services. You’ll also learn ways to conduct a patent search. It wraps on a very important issue—how to hire competent patent counsel.

Part 5, “Uncle Sam Wants (to Protect) YOU!” explains the different kinds of intellectual property (ip) protection—e.g., utility patent, plant patent, design patent, trademark, copyright, and trade secret. The information is designed as a primer, not to take the place of a patent counsel. The final chapter in Part 5 takes you behind the scenes at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for a look at how your application is handled.

In Part 6, “People Who Share, People Who Dare,” you see how Uncle Sam has gone from being a principal customer of technology to wanting to share technologies with private industry and build partnerships. There’s a smorgasbord of delicious opportunities for you, and Chapter 21 is the appetizer.

Chapter 22 is a primer on the toy industry, one of the last great frontiers for the entrepreneurial inventor.

After the chapters come the appendixes. And while I can do nothing to alleviate patent fees, I can help reduce your legal expenses. I’ve provided a confidential nondisclosure form (NDA) and licensing agreements for inventions and trademarks, respectively, that you can use as templates for your own transactions, potentially saving your lawyer hours of work and you thousands of dollars in legal fees.

To add some perspective, inspiration, and a bit of off-road mental adventure, I’ve peppered six different types of collateral information throughout:

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Cashing In On Your Inventions, Second Edition, is built on the foundation established through the generous contributions of those people thanked in the first edition released in 2002. Their warm reception, hospitality, expertise, and good cheer made the experience one I’ll always remember fondly. However, I must thank again the officials at the USPTO for their outstanding cooperation when the time came to fact-check this edition. Also my deep appreciation goes to my friends, extraordinary ip attorneys Dinesh Agarwal, Howard R. Fine, and Roberta Jacobs Meadway for their unselfish and invaluable contributions.

Ronald O. Weingartner, thanks for allowing me to pull material from our book, The Toy and Game Inventor’s Handbook.

At Alpha Books, heaps of gratitude to my editors: Mike Sanders, for his continued belief in this book, his friendship, sound judgment, and for compassionately taking my calls; Christy Wagner and Megan Douglass, for their sharp editorial skills; and the rest of their stellar team. A special shout out to Dawn Werk, Alpha’s talented marketing maven for keeping me in the loop and getting out my words.

There’s no way to repay my wife, Sheryl, for her oceanic patience, personal sacrifice, daily inspiration, and enduring those 18-hour stretches of time when words were my only world. But as with every project I take on, she provided unqualified and unwavering support and wise counsel and kept our lives and business on track until the book gods again released me from their grasp.

A special mention to Bettie, the love of our lives; The Beck and SZL, who set the examples by which I lead my life and whose footprints are forever in my heart; Uncle Mike, for my love of words; Nana and TRA, for showing me the world; The Chick in Hudson, because she’s THE CHICK; The J-Man in Hotlanta for this book’s cover photo and thousands of snapshots over the years; Montez in Boston for his friendship and humor and Haig der Marderosian (wherever you are).

The Beck rules!

All terms mentioned in this book that are known to be or are suspected of being trademarks or service marks have been appropriately capitalized. Alpha Books and Penguin Group (USA) Inc. cannot attest to the accuracy of this information. Use of a term in this book should not be regarded as affecting the validity of any trademark or service mark.