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Are Patents Necessary For Inventions?

By Dennis Conner

People are generally creative and some of them have discovered new things and have devised new methods to make life easier, funnier and more bearable. These people are commonly known as inventors although what they do is not so common at all.

Investors are people who have so much faith in man�s capacity to reinvent the wheel that most of them spend sleepless nights just to come up with new gadgets and gizmos. Fortunately for some, they do not need to spend countless hours looking up the sky for a possible invention as new ideas seem to pop out of their heads with nary an effort.

There are inventions that are potential earners and there are some that are both useful and out of this world. Take this butt bra that is supposed to provide the same wonders for the female species as the wonder bra. Funny, you may say but there are women who have problems with sagging buttocks and who may find this bottom lifter heaven sent.

Another invention can be useful for most vehicle owners considering the rising statistics in car theft. Through this invention, a car driver does not need to fight for his car when confronted by car thieves. He can just easily give up his car and walk away but only after he has activated this little remote which immobilizes the fuel pump of his car.

There are lots of inventions out there and some have great potentials to make their inventors millionaire sin their own right. But first, an inventor must know how to create and to protect feasible inventions.

An inventor who comes up with a good idea must first consider the feasibility of his invention before making a prototype. To be profitable, an invention must always answer a need of the mass market and must not be too costly to produce or else he loses his profit margin. The inventor should also make sure that the idea is original and has not been patented. It is possible that another person has already patented your idea but ha snot yet made any move to make this idea a reality so you have no seen anything in the market yet.

It is important to do research because patents are only publicized eighteen months after the application has been made and provided the inventor has not informed the patent office of his intention to keep the invention private. An inventor, who believes that his invention has marketability and that no patent has been issued or applied for, can approach a patent lawyer or a patent agent or to apply for the patent himself.

Some inventors recommend going to a patent lawyer since they are more experienced in these matters and they can strengthen your patent application. An inventor who wants to test the water first but who wants to be the first patent applicant can file a provisional patent application first which is cheaper and easier to file but does not really yield an actual patent. However, the inventor must file for a regular patent within one year of the provisional patent application to keep ahead of the others who may want to apply for a patent for the same invention.

An inventor must keep his invention a secret to anyone who does not sign a nondisclosure agreement. This is not only to protect the invention from being copied but also to be a step ahead with patent rules which does not allow the patenting of an invention a year after it has been made known to another person without a nondisclosure agreement.

About The Author

The author is a frequent writer for http://www.inventorhelper.com where more resources for inventors is available.

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