1) You have an idea, what are the first questions about protecting intellectual property that you need to ask ?
What is Intelectual Property (IP) and can your idea be protected ?
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Basically if you cannot protect your intellectual property (IP) that embodies your idea then there is not much point in pursuing it. It will never have any commercial value as IP - that is not to say that you should not develop it or market it but you will never be able to stop anyone else using your idea and competing with you. There are many successful business that have capitalised on a so called "First-mover advantage" situation, see wiki link. But that route requires a different business strategy and it is unlikely to ever create the sort of long term financial value that a properly protected idea can.Secondly there is not always a black and white definitive answer to this question, a clever IP lawyer can often find an aspect of an idea that can be protected that the layman would not have thought of - but you need to do your own assessment first.
What is IP ? - this is a good article
Intellectual property - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Is your idea original - and how do you search for information ?
r
This has to be the first question to ask, if someone else has had the idea before and it is in the public domain, even if they have not protected it, produced it or marketed it, then you will never be able to protect your idea so you will never be able to recoup any investment in money or time that you make.Its not always a signal to give up, many people use the discovery that an idea has been thought of before as a stimulus to innovate futher.But you should at least conduct your own searches before you proceed. The two standard ways to start are;1) Search the catalogues of exisiting manufactures 2) Search one of the online patent indexes3) Search the internet Record what you have found and record anything that is near or in the same classification.
Google Patents
esp@cenet Home page
What are the stages of protecting your IP?
Intellectual Property Office - Patents
How do you work wih IP professionals?
r
There are a great many skilled, qualified and decent intellectual property professionals, >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> BUT - there are a pernicious breed of service providers who ..........
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If no one will want to buy it what is the point of developing it?
How do you go about finding out if there is a market for your idea?
Th Brititsh Library do a neat ecourse on the subject
How do you present your findings in such a way that it will interest investors (and why is this important - read the note)?
r
You have all seen the part on Dragons Den where the investor asks the inventor how big the market for their invention is and the inventor says that the world market for brooms (for example) is ### squillion and he hopes to capture 1% of that market which would be # squillion and therefore his company is worth ##### squillion £ - and they cannot understand why they get laughed at! If only the world were so simple
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