Invention help topic 5 This is a touchy subject but it’ll probably be familiar to anyone who deals with inventors. It’s about the difference between real inventors and people who like to think they’re inventors. At abettermousetrap.co.uk that difference is revealed most starkly in the messages we get via our enquiry webform. When we put that form there, we lived in hope of intelligent questions about invention, patenting, marketing or whatever, from intelligent people. And [...]
A few thoughts on improving the patent system. OK, so most of us agree that the patent system is a mess. It’s overloaded with poor quality and questionable patents, it’s too complex and cumbersome, and it doesn’t actually protect anything unless you have extremely deep pockets. That’s the moaning, but what about the mending? Here, for what they’re worth – and as they’re the product of not more than about an hour’s thought, I’ll happy [...]
Invention Help Topic 3. You don’t have to spend much time with inventors before hearing about the ‘not invented here’ syndrome. A company will reject a great invention idea, so the NIH argument runs, simply because it didn’t originate with them. Rather than take on an inventor’s idea and make millions, they go into a jealous sulk and show the inventor the door. But is there any real substance to ‘not invented here’? Leaving aside [...]
Invention Help Topic 2. Can you be an inventor? This is a relevant question if you’ve invented something (or think you might have invented something) but are hesitant about doing anything with your invention idea because you feel you’re not ‘qualified’. There’s both a simple and a less simple answer. Simple first. Anyone can be an inventor. It’s one of few areas of human activity left where you don’t need exam passes, specialist skills or [...]
Written by and reproduced with the kind permission of Simon Brown of UIAUK. In forming the United Innovation Association UK I found myself spending a great deal of time assessing the words coming from government. I paid particular attention to those politicians who constantly tell us that we, the ordinary public, share responsibility for supporting growth in the UK. Frequently we’re told that enterprise, innovation and yes, invention, are the key factors in providing a [...]
Invention Help Topic 1Break out the champagne – here’s the first in our Invention Help Topic series, intended to be mini-tutorials in invention for beginners. Feel free to use the Comment facility to the max, and to suggest topics for future coverage. From a news feed, here’s a cautionary tale of an invention help service that doesn’t actually help inventors. As stories go there isn’t much to it, but it bundles several lessons for anyone [...]
OK, so Vince Cable announces a few changes to copyright law. Small beer for most of us, for whom the only benefit is that we’ll be off the hook when we buy music and copy it for our own use. Not much in it for inventors. Except that Vince’s announcement has triggered yet more debate about copyright itself. That is relevant to inventors, as it touches on the balance between rewarding creators of ideas and [...]
Patents that might as well not exist. Or so it seems An article about the Buddi personal tracker system in the latest edition of the always readable IP Insight from IPO provided me with more than usually chewy food for thought. Entrepreneur Sara Murray – who set up and then sold confused.com – was inspired to develop a child tracker system when her own child went briefly missing in a supermarket. Launched in 2007, it [...]
I don’t watch The Apprentice so have to tread carefully here, but the reaction to Tom Pellereau’s win has been interesting. Now clearly labeled Tom the inventor and nice guy, he’s this year’s default role model for inventors. So how does he measure up? His invention credentials thus far rest on a curved nail file, some unspecified means of predicting back pain, and some unspecified design of chair to alleviate it. None of these is [...]
What has a trade mark dispute between eBay and beauty products manufacturer L’Oréal to do with inventors? And why ‘eBay gum’? Give me a minute and I’ll get there. First, some background. The dispute started in 2009 and is summarised with exemplary brevity in this extract from the excellent Ipkat blog. The facts in brief: Paris-based L’Oréal, which had brought similar proceedings in several European countries, objected that online auction site eBay did not do [...]
