From Mary Bellis,
Your Guide to Inventors.
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Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Lesson 1: Understanding Intellectual Property
• Lesson 2: Patents & Inventions
• Lesson 3: How Do I Know if My Idea is Patentable
• Lesson 4: Conducting a Search for Prior Art
• Lesson 5: Is a Patent Worth Spending Money On?
• Lesson 6: How to Apply for a Patent
• Lesson 7: Proving You Were First
• Lesson 8: Making Money
• Lesson 9: Licensing
• Lesson 10: Business Plans
• Lesson 11: Raising Capitol

How does an inventor turn their new invention ideas into money? This is probably the single most often asked question I receive from people who have no clue as to how to proceed. They often hope that they can sell their brilliant new idea to somebody who will hand them money. Sorry, it just does not work that way and you often end up handing a fistful of money in the other direction.

The best answer I can give is to get educated in how the whole process works - how to potentially turn an idea into a money making invention. Upfront, you need to know that only a minority of ideas eventually make money. However, that should not stop you from inventing, after all even Thomas Edison had his failures.

How To Use These Money Lessons

This tutorial covers the very basics for people who know nothing at all. However, once completed you will have a good outline of the entire invention process. Each lesson is written in very simple terms (we are writing for beginners) and each lesson includes links to more advanced material.

We would suggest that you read just the lessons once from beginning to end and then later repeat the process and look at the more advanced materials offered in the right hand column. For example on this page we have additional material on how to deal with invention promoters that just might help you keep your fistful of money.

As an alternative, you can also receive this tutorial as a newsletter course.

Take your time, spend at least a day or two on each lesson.

Become an Educated Consumer

While this tutorial can help you do more yourself. You will need to hire professional help for many of the tasks that you cannot do for yourself. However, it is always better not to go shopping in the dark.

You might not have the legal know-how to execute a patent search or fill out a patent application. But there is no excuse for you not to know what a patent is and what searching for prior art means. You need to understand what patenting is all about.

And if you have no money everything you can do yourself or preliminarily prepare saves you money and prevents you from being taken advantage of.

Ready to Begin > Lesson 1: Understanding Intellectual Property