What on earth is going on at The United Inventors Association of America? At this point, if you’re a UK inventor you can make an excuse and leave, as little of what follows is relevant to the UK. But it’s fascinating, so stay with it if you possibly can. Briefly, the United Inventors Association of America (hereafter UIA) is: ‘a national, non-profit organization dedicated to inventor education and support, as well as certification of [...]
Inventors and patentees should be on their guard for another crop of official-looking but bogus invoices and demands for payment, intended to part unwary patentees from large amounts of cash. These scams are a routine hazard of invention and can cover any form of registrable IP – designs and trade marks as well as patents – where names, addresses and other details are held on publicly open databases. We’re grateful to inventor Bill Courtney for [...]
We’ve just restructured (new, improved recipe!) our services to inventors to offer a better and more keenly priced choice. We now offer two levels of Invention Advice Email and have added a stand-alone patent search service. Patent searching is still included in our Research & Report service, which stays as it is, and a low-cost patent application writing service is available to clients who have used or are already using other abettermousetrap.co.uk services. All these [...]
A dilemma for many inventors is deciding which exploitation road to go down. Do you aim to license the invention to a company for royalties, or drive it all yourself as a start-up venture? The circumstances of individual inventions and inventors differ so much that there is never going to be a one size fits all solution. General guidance is possible though, so here’s our take on the main factors you need to consider as [...]
IPO has just relaunched its mediation service to help businesses and inventors resolve IP disputes. That’s good as far as it goes, but the jury will be out for some time on whether mediation can do much to help individuals and SMEs prevent unauthorised use of their inventions. The patent system in particular makes it all too easy for large companies to ride roughshod over the IP rights of anyone without the bottomless pockets [...]
I’m a regular visitor to numerous LinkedIn groups for inventors. Many posters are new to invention and want advice, and a not infrequent question is: ‘I’ve got a patent, now what do I do?’ If the laws of physics were different, the best answer would be: ‘Go back to when you first thought of your invention – then ask “Now what do I do?”’ Too many inventors rush out and apply to patent an invention, [...]
An inventor-led research project with the potential to save lives was deliberately botched by two Manchester University academics. Evidence was faked, funders and industrial partners were misled, and the university’s subsequent internal investigation simply swept financial and research fraud further under the carpet. Those are just some of the disturbing claims of inventor Bill Courtney, who feels he has been bullied and threatened for speaking out. Bill’s version of events – and it’s a long [...]
UPDATED: see end of post Something needs saying about Trevor Baylis following his recent claims to be broke, living in poverty, and to have never made money out of his wind-up radio invention. I’ve never met Trevor, but know plenty of people who have. Opinions about him are mixed, it has to be said, though no one doubts his enthusiasm for invention and inventors. He’s almost certainly the best-known living British inventor, but perhaps only [...]
A few days ago I posted this question to several invention-related LinkdeIn groups in the USA: Can anyone tell me why USPTO tends to search only US patents for prior art? I do lots of patent searching for (mainly) UK inventors, and find it odd that USPTO examiners appear to take such a narrow approach. I can’t easily find an explanation for it, and it strikes me as a practice that must mislead many [...]
This news item caught my eye yesterday, via Twitter. I wouldn’t normally bet more than small change on the Daily Mail getting its facts right, but the detail in the story seems reasonably convincing. US inventor Jack Andraka is just fifteen years old. He’s invented a cheap and easy to use test for early pancreatic cancer, a disease that is currently hard to detect until its late stages, and so kills 19 out of [...]
