From Mary Bellis,
Your Guide to Inventors.
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Get educated in the whole process of how invention submission works, with basic lessons on how to potentially turn a new idea into a money making invention.

Guides for Beginners on Invention Submission

Intellectual property can be tough to understand. Understand the basics first - the what does that mean questions - and the rest will follow.

• What do you need? A Patent, Trademark, or Copyright?
• Understanding Patents and Patenting
• Definition of Utilty, Design, Plant, or Provisional Patents.
• Understanding Trademarks or Copyrights
• Why you should get your Invention Assessed
• The million dollar question How Do You Turn a New Idea Into Money?
• Ten Top Ways to Fail as an Inventor

Tips and Instructions for Registration & Application

The basics on registering, using and protecting intellectual property. Did you know that many of the pages for a patent application have to made by you from scratch, that they are no fill in the blanks type of forms? Did you know that you can file online for intellectual property protection?

• How to file for a Utility, Design, Plant, or Provisional Patent.
• Tips on writing Descriptions, Claims, or Abstracts for a patent application
• Registering a Trademark or Copyright
• Tutorial on Patent Searching

Tips and Instructions on Drawings and Illustrations

Your patent application will most likely require drawings. Not "art class" drawings, but specific types of drawings (maybe photographs) that are made in a certain way, with the different parts of your invention numbered, and with different views. When you apply for a trademark, even with a word trademark there is a certain kind of illustration that you must submit.

• Tips on Making Drawings for a patent application
• Tutorial on creating Patent Drawings for a Utility Patent
• Trademark Illustrations

Doing Business

Trying to sell your invention or go into business for yourself

• Introduction - Making Money
• How Do I Raise Money?
• Creating a Marketing Plan for Invention Submission
• Creating a Business Plan for Invention Submission

Articles on the Experience of Invention Submission

The following articles are more personable and are the point of view of successful inventors.

• The Most Important Key to Successful Inventing
• The Expert's Patent Strategy
• Patents are Not Puppies!
• Acquiring & Defending Patents
• How I Learned to Become a Successful Inventor
• Pressure on the American Patent System
• How to Sell a Million Games

Invention Submission Gone Wrong

What happens when you go to the wrong people and expect them to do everything for you.

• Questions to Ask Invention Submission Companies
• How to Avoid an Invention Submission Company Scam
• What Can Go Wrong With Invention Submission

Frequently Asked Questions

• Patent FAQ
• Copyright FAQ
• Trademark FAQ
• Reader FAQ on Invention Submission
• Students' FAQ