The Best-Laid Flight Plans
Whether inventing, manufacturing, selling your product yourself or inventing and licensing your invention to another company, it will need to go through many steps and/or iterations.
Explore “Meant to Invent,” where an experienced inventor shares valuable lessons and insights from her journey. Gain practical knowledge and inspiration through her personal stories, challenges, and triumphs. Learn from her experiences to fuel your own inventive spirit and navigate the path of innovation with confidence.
Whether inventing, manufacturing, selling your product yourself or inventing and licensing your invention to another company, it will need to go through many steps and/or iterations.
When working with companies and other inventors, avoid these common errors. Don’t send unsolicited marketing materials—whether dealing with companies or other inventors.
I have experienced an array of timelines when pitching and licensing new concepts—from licensing an item to the first person I pitched it to, to licensing a concept within a month of pitching to dozens of companies, all the way to licensing a product after pitching it for a couple of years, and everything in-between.
Is it worth the time? What has worked before? What will have to change? I look into factors such as demand, market size, manufacturability, cost and trends. I also do an extra layer of evaluation.
I have seen inventors with amazing products that never made it to market. The No. 1 reason is that they gave up too soon. Besides a few obvious character traits, these others are consistent in successful inventors.
Key factors in a licensing agreement may vary in importance, depending on the inventor and situation. No one can claim definitively what should be the most important factor in a licensing agreement.