On Mon, 21 Nov 2005 13:57:10 +0000, Steve Peterson wrote:


"J T" wrote in message
... Mon, Nov 21, 2005,
2:31am (Buddy Matlosz) doth sayeth:
snip next time you have an idea, snip

Might want to research it first.

You can start he http://www.uspto.gov/. There is help for inventors
with a new invention, and you can check the patent archives to see what
has already been patented. Your patent has to be useful, but it also has
to be novel and non-obvious.

Once you have the patent application filed, you can go ahead and figure
out how to manufacture, distribute and sell it. If you thought the
original invention was a difficult challenge, you will find these to be
nearly insurmountable and it is where most new inventions founder and die.
It is a really good idea to find some company that can already provide
these functions and license the invention to them. Royalty income is a
nice addition to whatever you really live on, and keeps you from having to
spend all your time on activities that probably don't interest you. And
even if you like manufacturing, you may hate distribution or sales.

If you figure out a relatively painless way to solve these problems, let
me know. I have a novelty ruler that measures in astronomical units,
atoparsecs. Every amateur astronomer should have one.

Good luck,
Steve

Thanks, Steve.

I think I just posted something to the effect of: I know the patent
system well. (In fact, I've searched every possible patent in the
particular class I need, and have about 2-300 patents retrieved and
printed out -- I have a script that fetches them from uspto.gov and
converts them to PDFs.) I'm in Silicon Valley, have an MBA from a top-3
school, and know intellectual property law pretty darn well -- but,
sincerely, thanks!

I'm intrigued by your ruler that measures in attoparsecs (you misspelled
the unit) -- but I find 1.21483474 inches, or 3.08568025 centimeters, to
be an inconvenient unit of measure. That's just me.

By the way, how much do you weigh in yottadaltons?

Andrew