Licensing Your Invention the Easy Way

Like most inventors, you have been actively seeking a company to license or purchase your invention. You’ve sent hundreds of letters and brochures about your idea to unresponsive companies to no avail. Why not try a company that wants to hear from you and is actively looking for new inventions! These companies do exist and they often purchase and license inventions from individual inventors.

In the old days, an inventor’s routes were limited when he attempted to realize financial profit from his idea. Most often, inventors would pursue companies that specialized in manufacturing and/or distributing inventions within the particular field in which the inventor was working. Inventors often found themselves wasting their time since most of these companies were too large or impersonal to allow the inventor to get a foot in the door. On those rare occasions where an inventor could get one of these companies to express some interest, the inventor often found himself without legal representation and in a weak bargaining position against a powerful and well funded company. Obviously, many inventors were taken advantage of.

Today, the scenario bodes far better for individual inventors. While these same companies are still hard to reach and difficult to deal with, a new brand of companies with a new philosophy is beginning to emerge. These companies do not specialize in any one particular product line. Rather, they devote their resources to selling a product line which is diverse and unique, a product line which encompasses interesting and innovative new gadgets and problem solving devices. Such a product line is obviously easier to develop and expand when these companies tailor their policies towards being receptive to individual inventors.

Accordingly, there exists today a vast array of companies that are quite receptive to new products developed by individual investors. A prime example is Nordic Track Inc. Although to most of us Nordic Track Inc is responsible for exercise equipment and nothing else, the fact is that several years ago Nordic Track embarked on a campaign to develop and bring to market a variety of different products. To further this endeavor, Nordic Track advertises in a variety of publications seeking new inventions and products. For the individual inventor, this is a warm and receptive road to travel.

The Sharper Image, a well known “gadget” shop has a similar ideology. Many of the products it sells in its mail order catalogues were developed directly from small inventor solicitations. The same is true of the Hammacher and Schlemmer Company. Inventors interested in sending their products or ideas to these companies can obtain their toll free inventor solicitation numbers directly from each company’s mail order catalogue.

This recent change in philosophy is also evident in the telemarketing areas. Companies like QVC and the Home Shopping Network, with their great abilities to cause any items they carry to become overnight successes, are currently paying a great deal of attention to individual inventors. Previously, these companies refused to market and sell an item on the air unless it had already been developed and was in production. This proved to be a great barrier to those individual inventors who has marketable product ideas but lacked the resources to initiate the manufacturing. Realizing that by bringing an invention from concept directly to market they could increase profits several fold, companies like QVC and the Home Shopping Network soon changed policies and opened their arms to inventors. Today, the official policy at these companies reflects preferences to find products in an undeveloped stage (i.e. the stage in which most individual inventors often find themselves). Luckily, these companies will now readily accept solicitations from individuals with new product ideas.

As is evident, times have changed. Gone are the days where inventors would spend hours of hard work soliciting companies who had no interest in reviewing their ideas. Today, large companies realize that to stay competitive they must cooperate and work hand-in-hand with individual inventors.

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