Start here
FREE First Steps You Can Take
Some free advice to get you started — three initial do-it-yourself steps.
Three initial do-it-yourself steps
As an inventor, you've undoubtedly heard the advice, "You've got to spend money to make money." While there is some truth to that notion, it doesn't mean that you have to spend unwisely. And it doesn't mean you have to spend money right away.
We have a mantra here at QuickPatents… instead of "Get Rich Quick," we like to say "Don't Get Poor Quick."
YOU can help yourself by taking a few initial steps necessary to check for patentability of your idea. These steps are simple, and they can quickly tell you FOR FREE if your idea actually is as novel as you might think.
So before you spend your first dime on your idea, here are a few steps you can take to find out if there are some really obvious "prior art" patents or products that are similar to your idea.
Keyword Worksheet
Start by writing down the key nouns and concepts that describe your invention.
Download the worksheet- 1
Complete a Keyword Worksheet
Complete this Keyword Worksheet to prepare for the steps below.
- 2
Do-It-Yourself Patent Search
If you've never done a patent search before, you probably won't be able to do an extremely thorough search… but you will be able to do a "quick and dirty" search to see if there are any easy-to-find prior art patents.
- 3
Do-It-Yourself Market Search
Search the open market for products similar to your idea. A product that is already for sale can pre-empt your patent even if it was never patented.
The steps above will not be exhaustive, by any means, but they are a great first step that you can do for free to try and "knock out" your invention.
And believe me, you want to try hard to find your invention when conducting research, because otherwise you'll be fooling yourself and spending money on an idea that may not be worthy — wasting the funds you'll need for your next idea that may truly be novel. You need to put on the attitude that I do whenever conducting a patent search: "Let's find this thing." I'm happy when I find your product in the patent literature, because I know I've done my job and you can stop spending money on an invention that you didn't think of first. Of course, I'm even happier when I don't find it and I know I've looked under every rock I can think of.
You don't need to spend money with any patent attorney or patent agent to spot the patents that are "out in the open." Then, if you don't spot anything obvious, you've reduced the risk — and now it might be worth spending a few hundred dollars to have a professional look under the rocks.
Questions along the way?
Book a free 30-minute consultation with a registered patent practitioner.