Invention

Welcome to the Inventors Resource part of the Website. 

Here at F3 we are very passionate about Invention and the benefits it can provide to individuals, industry, Australia and humanity as a whole.  We are lucky enough to have been involved with many Inventive projects that have helped everyday Australians become independently wealthy and also some that have changed entire industries for the better, one in particular created a world wide change in packaging practices and saves billions of liters of waste every year by extending the shelf life of liquid perishables.

People don't realize how important but also how rare Invention is in our society.  Everyone assumes that world changing ideas are invented in large corporations when it is far more likely that an individual, either within a corporation or outside of it, has had the insight and eureka moment that has sparked change.  Apple is a massive corporation but where would it be without Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, no x-rays without Marie Curry, no white out without Bette Nesmith Graham and of course no Strucket without Kelly Lavery (she is featured in the header at the top of this page). 

Our hope is to guide these special individuals and offer options that they can peruse in order to help them to realize their Inventions (or ideas) so they may make a change in their lives or the lives of others.  Please make use of the resources and knowledge provided here.  It is hard to come by so please share it freely so others don't need to learn their lessons by mistake.  This information comes from a lifetime of Inventing and Innovating and 25 years of taking ideas through to market as a Professional Industrial Designer.  We hope they help you to change your world and we are only a phone call away if you need our help.

Links to Podcast:
Why Invention Benefits Australia and Society
Invention vs Industrial Design
The Fascinating World of Invention




Business Strategies

Before we even make a start on the design process it is important to take a moment to project forward and see what you actually want to achieve from taking on a entrepreneurial venture like product development.  Our society is good at promoting big business strategies and powerful people at the top of the heap but the price of these things can also be very high.  It can be incredibly stressful and all consuming meaning you may sacrifice other important goals like having a family or having time for your existing family.  If you sole aim in life is to be a jet setting, high flying ruler of many then go for it, I'll be behind you all the way but if you take on a project and you end up hating that lifestyle then the project may not feel like much of a success to you five years in.

There are many options and exit strategies to consider when going into a new venture like this and I will go through some of the more common options and their pro's and con's so you can generate a mental map of what path you may want to take.

1. Develop some Intellectual Property and sell it off to the highest bidder 

Sounds awesome doesn't it.  I've had a brilliant idea and I've approached an Attorney to get a patent and now the world will come beating down my door and start a bidding war for my idea.  I'll retire richer than my wildest dreams and never have to work again.  I'm not saying this has never happened but if it has I've never heard of it.  Think of this from a buyers perspective, they would be buying an idea that is unproven, untested, has no evidence of market need, has a patent that hasn't been examined so may be rejected and the buyer still has to do all of the development, pay for all of the production costs, do all of the marketing and take all of the risk.  It is hard to imagine any company willing to take those sorts of risks so it's best to put this idea out of your head and put a more solid plan in place.  In my experience if you are going to undertake a venture like this there are no shortcuts and you've just got to do everything right or not do it at all.
 
2. Develop a Product and Sell it to a third party

This is a far more likely opportunity because by developing an actual product you have something tangible to trade and it is far easier to patent a functional product than an idea.  By working through all of the technical obstacles and developing a product that actually works and solves the problem at hand you reduce the risk of the third party dramatically.  Also, by having an actual working product or prototype, it is obvious to an Attorney what you've developed and they can do relevant searches to make sure you have free title on the product and that it is novel and inventive so can be patented.  Be aware though that although this is less risk for the buyer it still has some major barriers due to the fact that the market hasn't been proven, the patent may still not have been examined (this takes quite a lot of time) and there are still the manufacturing, production, marketing and distribution costs and logistics to bear.  Along with all of these costs you are then holding your hand out for a large sum of money to buy the product off you.  This sort of deal does occur but you can see it is still a risky proposition for a company to expose themselves to.

3. Develop a Product and License it to a third party

Now we are getting somewhere, this path if done properly can provide a very successful result for both the developer and the buyer.  The party developing the product avoids all of the substantial costs in manufacturing, marketing and distributing the product and the buyer (or licensee in this case) is sharing the risk with the seller rather than having to pay a large sum upfront.  Depending on the project the cost of development can still be relatively high (you're talking the cost of putting in a new pool on average) and you are designing and protecting the product as if you are a large multi-national (because this is now your client, not an individual as it would be if you are manufacturing and selling a product).  You will not only have to develop the product with all of the bells and whistles so the third party sees it's full potential but you will also need to be very thorough with your patent protection because this will form a large part of your negotiation.  A licensing agreements works by the Inventor (Licensor) agreeing to allow a third party (Licensee) to take your technology or intellectual Property and develop it to exploit for their own gain.  They then agree to pay you a royalty for each product they sell.  This can be based on a larger percentage of the manufacturing price or a lower percentage of the wholesale (or if they are a retailer, the retail price).  It is generally the former because there is no currency conversions to calculate.  This percentage is very product dependent but can range from 1% to 20%.  Now 1% sounds insignificant but if you are selling to a multi national that sells hundreds of thousands of units it quickly adds up and you can't forget that you haven't had to risk or outlay all of the manufacturing, production, distribution, sales and marketing costs - and their network would dwarf any sales you could hope to make as a start up.

4. Develop and Manufacture a product to sell directly to the market

This business structure offers the most control and is very appealing to many people for this reason.  You are not reliant upon striking a deal with a third party to make your project turn a profit but on the flip side you bear all the costs and liability of the product and also have to develop a strategy for sales and supply.  You are also charge of all of the Patent and Trademarking costs and everything in between like websites, brochures, barcodes etc, etc, etc.  My most successful clients have taken this route as have I and each and every one of us has the battle wounds to prove it.  It is a very challenging but ultimately very satisfying path but a good dose of mental fortitude is required.  In choosing this path you will be very hands on (at least in the early stages) as start ups generally need a lot of input on launch.  As the business grows you will be able to employ staff to help you but you should plan to be very busy in the first few years.

5. Develop and Manufacture a product to sell through a distribution network

This plan is very similar to plan 4 but in this case you aren't required to build the sales pipeline but instead rely on an established distributor to sell your goods for you.  This has huge advantages because a distributor already has sales pipelines, credibility and reps on the road fulfilling their own products and can simply add your product to their range.  It gives you instant access to all of their selling and fulfillment capabilities and you only need to supply the one entity.  Of course you still have all of the manufacturing, liability, patenting and supply issues to take care of but these can become quite automatic after a period of time.  In these situations you generally sell your product to the distributor at a wholesale price and they put their markup on top before on selling it to a retailer.

Links to Podcasts:
How to price your Business
Got a Million Dollar Idea? ...should you just go on a holiday?
Patents (with special guest Regan Gourley
Staging and Launch Strategies
Entrepreneurs.  What it takes
Working with a trusted advisor
Setting your business up tp sell
Product Commercialization (Part 1)
Product Commercialization (Part 2)




Patent Strategies


Non Disclosure Agreements (NDA's)

Before you start it is important to know how to stop your ideas from being exploited by others.  I can tell you from experience that this does happen and it is a very bitter pill to swallow.  Not many people understand the amount of time and energy that may have gone into coming up with what appears from the outside to be a fairly simple idea.  There are millions of ways to solve most problems but to whittle them down to one viable solution can take many years of experimentation and thought.  However once that solution is made tangible through drawings or prototypes then you will need to put some sort of protection in place to stop others from taking that idea and running with it. 

One way to protect your ideas in the early stages is by getting people you speak to about your ideas to sign a Non Disclosure Agreement (sometimes called a Confidentiality Agreement or IP Contract).  This agreement defines the general nature of your project (a full disclosure means they know what your product is before signing the document) and the purpose of the disclosure, a time period the agreement holds for and the ramifications of breaching it.  You can learn more about them here on the IP Australia Site About NDA's

At F3 Industrial Design we have developed our own Non Disclosure Agreements (NDA's) and use certain ones to suit certain jobs and circumstances.  We have however found a great resource on the IP Australia Site that allows you to generate your own NDA  NDA Generator.   



Patents, Trademarks etc

This topic is very broad and has legal ramification if I give you the wrong advice here.  Let me just say that Copyright, Design Registrations, Innovation Patents, Patents, Trademarks and Trade Secrets can all be very crucial to the outcome and sustainability of your projects.  On the other hand, not managing the costs of these processes and applications can cripple a company financially and you can risk losing all of your protection if you can't afford to pay for a patent fee when it is due.  Striking a balance between your needs and budget is a very important aspect of your overall project and needs a well thought through strategy.  To start you off here is a link to all things Patent Related Understanding Intellectual Property.  We also have a number of very knowledgeable, approachable and reputable Patent Attorneys we can direct you to if needed.  Because of our focus on Patentable Products, F3 is also very experienced in developing Intellectual Property strategies and do so regularly for our inhouse and client projects, so if you need further help we can assist you in this area. 

One gold nugget we can provide is to consider deeply when you decide to start the patent process.  Start too early and you may be paying patent bills when you should be paying manufacturing bills, start too late and you may risk the novelty of your product by taking it into the public domain without cover. 

Another is to remember the two aspects that constitute a patentable solution.  It has to have an inventive step and it has to be novel.  Before you start spending money on your project do a long and thorough search for anything that may be competing in the same space.  If there is someone doing the same thing in the same way then decide if your product is still viable.  The other thing to remember when you look at the aspects of a patent is that if you put your product out into the public domain prior to obtaining patent protection then it is no longer deemed novel and you can destroy any chance of being granted a patent.  You don't necessarily need a patent to develop a product, in fact you might be surprised to know that the massive multinational Coca-Cola doesn't have a patent to cover their recipe and simply keeps it a trade secret.  

Links to Podcasts:
Patents (with special guest Regan Gourley)
Planning, Philosophy & Patent Strategy



Market, Product and IP Research

Before you start designing your product it is wise to do a thorough search on-line and in shops that may stock products like the one you are looking at developing.  If there are none available then ask yourself why that is.  Has no one been as imaginative as you or are you seeing a problem that no one else considers worth spending money on fixing.  Are there commercial, physical or technical barriers that are stopping others from solving the problems your product solves.  Also consider the fact that if there aren't any competing products you may need to allocate a large marketing budget to educate people on why they need this new to world offering.  On the other hand, if there are a lot of competing products then you will need to make sure you have a good competitive advantage to go up against them and turn a profit.  

If there are no competing products then it is advisable to research the market to find out if there is a legitimate need (or market pull) for your product.  In the same way, if there are many competing products you should find out if they are satisfying the market need or if they are lacking in some way that you could rectify in your own offering.  Something to note here is that you need to be careful when doing this market research.  People can't be relied upon to imagine what a new product can do for them and so sometimes you need to rely on your gut instinct or existing knowledge of the market to make a decision on a product launch.  If Steve Job's had have told people he was going to produce a mobile phone that had a flat glass screen with no buttons on it they would have opted for one with the buttons because that's what they were used to.

It is also advisable to do a patent search to make sure you have a novel idea and also that you aren't going to breach someone else's patent.  The patent office is full of patents that aren't commercially viable and hence have never made it to the shelves but these applications still constitute Prior Art (information on inventions that has already been publicly disclosed) and if they are similar to your own ideas, they may preclude you from obtaining the novelty required to secure Patent Protection.  More importantly if you produce a product that does breach someone else's patent then you may be sued by them for damages.

IP Australia has some search options here IP Searches but be warned there are a few tricks to these searches that mean you can easily miss relevant applications that may come back to haunt you once you get to the examination phase (where the patent office searches for Prior Art to make sure your ideas are truly novel).  There are professional services in this area and we can put you in touch with these suppliers if you find the searches too difficult.  Here is another good page of information re Patents and Patent Attorneys that's worth looking at IP Knowledge and Attorneys.  And we can put you in touch with professionals who can do searches for you at a reasonable cost and a lot quicker than the public options.



Concept Development

Once you feel that there is an opportunity for your product idea then it is time to start turning the idea into a solution.  It is important to realize that the idea is only the very beginning of the journey and also that the idea isn't patentable, only the solution is capable of being patented (as long as it is novel and has an inventive step).  So now it's time to turn your idea into a solution. In my experience there are normally many, many ways to solve the same problem.  The trick is to solve the problem at hand in a way that ensures the success of your product.  What I do is start with a list of requirements that your product needs to solve.  These may include aspects that allow the product to solve the problem functionally (i.e. a cup needs to hold fluids) but should also include things like meeting safety standards so you don't burn the users hand if the contents of the cup are hot, have an ergonomic handle so that it is comfortable for the user to hold.  This list of requirements should cover all aspects right down to the surface finish so the cup can be easily cleaned etc. 

Once the list of requirements has been outlined then the design process can begin and the solutions you come up with can be measured against the list of requirements.  Solutions that include ALL of the requirements are obviously the best but you still need to balance out requirements and give them a weight.  For instance if a safety requirement isn't being met it will have a far greater weighting than the surface finish or colour and so the product may not be viable even though safety is the only aspect it doesn't account for.  

At F3 we use a combination of brainstorming (Mental evaluation of ideas either as a group or individual) to work through possible alternatives to solve the problem at hand and then we may also test these ideas by sketching them down to see how they look on paper or by making a physical jigs to test the ideas.  Once ideas start to form into solutions it is good to sketch them in a format that allows you to communicate the solutions to others so you can get some feedback from other interested parties.  In a consulting role it is important to create drawings detailed enough that the client can clearly understand the proposed solution.  We may also come up with a number of different solutions that solve the problem in different ways and then sit down and critique all of the solutions picking the best parts of each and then refining the process more until we have one final concept that everyone agrees is suitable to go forward with.

Links to Podcasts:
Concept is King
Video of Design Process



Examples of Initial Concepts