Customer Reviews

From Patent to Profit: Secrets & Strategies for Success

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have found this book to be an invaluble asset as I have brought my idea through the patent process, and especially now as I am beginning to market it. From patent searching to explaining the nuts and bolts of the entire patent process I cannot say enough about how well it is written. As well, I have come to the conclusion that without reading this book I certainly would not have known how to REALLY go about getting my product to market! It is written in easy to understand language explaining the do's and don'ts of the entire process. I found the information given about how to detect and avoid the scam artist involved in the invention industry especially interesting. The companion "frompatenttoprofit.com" website was very useful in this regard. What I found most valuable about this read was how well the author details how to bring a product to market with a minimum of resources being spent. An acquaintence of mine so far has poured over $200,000 into his invention with no results. If he only would have read this book first, he would have known how to avoid such risk!

I read the 3rd (Orange cover) latest edition. A "wannabe" who is prototyping a software idea, I have looked at about 4 books to help me in the patent process.

The Good:
He tells you not to rush your invention. Instead of rushing to file a Provisional Patent Application, I am slowly building the prototype.

The Bad:
1) In the section on patent searching, He mentions only PatentHunter to download patents, which has a per year subscription cost of about a hundred dollars. (On the PatentHunter website I read that it was designed by patent attorney Michael Neustel).
That is fine but I was annoyed to find that no mention at all is made of the completely free resources that can help you download patents like pat2pdf, patentfetcher (you can find them using any search engine).
2) Some places in the book seemed unrealistic and rather exaggerated. He mentions that it costs $250K to fight an infringement and 10 times that for a software patent; that attorneys will be glad to help you fight (for free) if you split the proceeds, so dont worry about infringement.
Who has that much money lying around to spend defending an idea? (Not me). For a more realistic true account, read the good book "Inventing Made Easy" by Tom and Roger Bellavance. One of his inventions was repeatedly and blatantly infringed upon and he lost a lot of money and became disillusioned by it. His conclusion: patents do NOT provide you with any protection unless you are a corporation with deep pockets.

3) Patent Attorneys are not infallible and I think that they can make mistakes every step of the way and simply spending a lot of money and hiring one will not insure you from mistakes. (David Pressman's book "Patent Pending in 24 hours" quotes a mistake made by an attorney in the prior art search)

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I feel that a book like this is better written by a panel of specialists with the inventor's thread running through it. For example, the Inventor writes the inventing section, a patent attorney; the patenting section, a manufacturing person on how to find and negotiate with a manufacturer. etc. That way, you know that he really knows and the book becomes more valuable.

One book I really liked was "How to Go from Brainstorm to Bingo!" by Charles Chick.

From Patent to Profit is the first book anyone considering developing a new idea should buy. FPTP catapulted me right into licensing negotiations. It teaches who to talk to, how to talk to them, and how to protect yourself and your product. FPTP is very thorough yet easy to read. It takes you step-by-step from idea to profit. A priceless book!

Since 1987, this author has received 14 patents and has achieved a 100% success rate in developing and marketing them. This is particularly impressive when you consider only about 3% of patents earn any money at all for their inventors. In this handbook he shares his hard-acquired knowledge concerning product creation, patenting, licensing, manufacturing, and marketing.

The author, Bob DeMatteis, offers several opinions that differ from what other writers in the field currently offer. For example, he puts down the need for a business plan if you go the licensing route. He never wrote one and feels that the company licensing your invention should and will do their own plan. However, getting an honest, unbiased evaluation is good even though potential licensees will want to gather their own facts.

In his chapter on invention strategy, he calls attention to the fact that inventors often fail to grasp that marketing and manufacturing can take 68% to 93% of your time.

In America, he points out; we have a fascination with thinking big. But the key to success is often in thinking small. That is filling a small (niche) market. He notes that it is often the fourth or fifth improvement patent that results in a commercial breakthrough. He notes how the Japanese have applied this principle with great success.

He stresses the importance of customer-driven innovations (CDIs). He lists a dozen areas where the right invention can turn customers on. For example, the environment area is now a hot button area and if you can double the life of a product, you also reduce trash by one half.

In the past, a basic design guide was "form follows function." Today, he suggests that "form follows emotion." He writes, "Don't kid yourself. People usually buy because the purchase raises a positive emotion." He discusses 14 ways to arouse emotions.

He observes that today's inventors are living at the right time because "in the world of patents, it is well known that patent values have increased 20-50 fold in just the past several years." He explains how the "Doctrine of Equivalence" and the 1997 Hilton-Davis case justify this observation.

Bob disagrees (and explains why he does) with some patent attorneys that feel a provisional patent application should include claims. He is strong on inventors using provisional patent applications, but cites several precautions to observe when doing so. He notes that while many worry about possible interference proceedings, it comes up only about once in 1500 patents filed.

He strongly recommends doing a preliminary patent search. It can save you a great deal of time and money. He stresses not overlooking similar words when searching. As an example, he lists 14 words that may be used in place of an ordinary word like "glue," such as "binder," "conjoining compound," and "adherent."

He takes note of how often inventors endure negative comments from pessimists. Many of his patents deal with plastic grocery bags and their racks and dispensers. Yet people will say "You can't patent a hole in a plastic bag." They see only the hole and not the function it serves.

The author suggests, like many do, that approaching very large corporations with your invention is very often a waste of time. Their billion dollar research labs haven't come up with it, therefore they can't believe anyone can.

He reminds us that trademarks can grow and grow in value and in time may exceed the value of the patent that inspired them.

He is often asked, in his seminars, as to what is the first thing an inventor should do. He replies that as soon as you can, get a marketing expert on your team.

He points out at least six times in his book how scam companies, "invention assistance companies," defraud U.S. inventors of 200 million dollars each year. Their ads run on radio and television and appear even in reputable magazines and newspapers. Donald Grant Kelly, a director at the U.S. Patent office is quoted as describing them as "ruthless highwaymen," "scoundrels," and as a "national disgrace." Their success rate is typically about 1 in 10,000! Avoid them as you would the bubonic plague. Heeding just this one bit of advice may save you between 20 and 300 times the price of this book.

I had an idea for a product, but didn't know where to go from there. I borrowed this book from the library, and it not only answered all my immediate questions, I'm ordering it as a reference to use through the whole "patent to profit" process. Great book!

The book is very easy to read, and it is very interesting. The author weaves in the need for patents and other intellectual property protection very well into the invention process. This is far better coverage on the strategy of patents than I have ever read before.

But for me the best part was the overall process recommended by the author. He shows us how to have marketing and manufacturing concerns guide the invention process from the beginning. He also presents a very detailed analysis of how to go about inventing a product using the problems and concerns of the customer as a basis for your product. This, again, was very well done.

The author has invented, and now teaches inventing. This book serves as his seminar material.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

John Dunbar

Since there seems to be some interesting, even irresponsible, comments being made, I thought I would set the record straight. First, I am Bob DeMatteis, the author of this book and I recommend you be careful when purchasing. Do not buy the 8-year old, outdated edition (blue cover). I am shocked amazon carries it. Instead buy the new 3rd edition (c) 2005, (ISBN 0-7570-0140-8) in the orange cover.

About the irresponsible comments. You must be careful of advice from patent attorneys or anyone making snap judgments thinking I winged it, or a patent cited in the book is easy to design around. They don't have a clue. The inventions in both editions are covered by more than one patent and both have made a lot of money. Those making irresponsible, unqualified assumptions are jumping to laughable conclusions and are not experts in inventing or marketing. The new 3rd edition shows you how to hire a trustworthy attorney who is truly interested in your success and not billing you for his hours.

Setting the record even straighter, all of my 20+ patents have been licensed before or during the patent pending process. All have made money. So, do you want advice from someone who hasn't a clue about profiting from an invention? Or, would you prefer advice from a successful inventor who's commercialized all of his? Besides, when purchasing From Patent to Profit, you can return it if you don't find it helpful. However, an attorney will still charge you if you decide you are suddenly unhappy with his services.

The 3rd edition is endorsed by leading experts in the field of inventing and patenting, including Don Kelly, former director of the U.S. Patent Office and Andy Gibbs, CEO of PatentCafe, who sits on the board of the Patent Advisory Counsel to the U.S. Patent Office. It is endorsed by dozens of respectable patent attorneys, successful inventors, marketers and government agencies like the SBA and SBDC. After you read it, I'm confident you'll endorse it too.

Last, be aware that 97% of all patents don't make the inventor any money. The 3rd edition of From Patent to Profit shows you how to do what I and many other successful inventors have done...that is, commercialize and profit from ALL of your inventions. Follow the advice of a patent attorney or a book written by one, like Patent it Yourself, and you will be assured of two things: 1) You're about to become a statistic in the 97% failure category, and; 2) You're going to spend a lot of money getting there!

In general, I can recommend that inventors buy a copy of the book because too few books on inventing emphasize the marketing and licensing aspects of commercializing your invention. As crazy as the patenting process is, it pales in comparison to the craziness of trying to market a new product, especially in a field with established competitors. It makes no sense to spend $5000 to $15000 to obtain a patent, if at a minimum, you won't make the $5000 to $15000 back in profits, plus whatever sweat equity you put in. Thus the importance of a book written by an inventor who has done this successfully.

I am a patent attorney and was shocked after skimming this book. In my opinion, many aspects taught in this book - especially the patent-related aspects - are absolutely not in line with sound patent practice. I doubt that the example patent that is provided as a "go-by" would even satisfy the patent office's minimum technical requirements - especially the claims, which are just plain scary (for example, the dependent claims would surely be rejected for "improper antecedent basis", which the author seems to know nothing about). You would think that the author would have had a patent attorney (or at least a patent agent or somebody else who had formal training in patent law) review the book (and especially the example patent) for mistakes, but he apparently did not do this. Instead, he apparently "winged it" and produced an amaturish book and an example patent that would take a real patent practitioner about 2 seconds to invalidate or design around.

One of the most shocking examples of plain old stupidity taught in this book is the suggestion that, to determine whether your idea would be patentable, you should ask a store manager if they have ever seen the idea before. What a great idea! Tell the people who sell the product about your idea BEFORE you patent it. Run from this book...and if you have read it...forget everything you read.

Better to find a book written by an actual patent attorney or agent - like "Patent It Yourself" by David Pressman, or, for a more detailed treatment of patent strategies, try "Patent Strategies for Business" by Stephen Glazier.

Some background on the author is helpful if you are considering purchasing this book as a means of learning the invention process (the following is a summary of the introduction): Prior to inventing several highly successful products, the author was a professional trainer. As a means of service and a way to fulfill his love of training, the author decided to teach an invention course at a local school and sought out a textbook from which to structure the course. No adequate book existed, so he wrote his own based on the insights gained from his experience.

There are many books on invention, but this may be the only textbook I've found. Have you read a textbook lately? They tend to be very comprehensive with a lot of pages. That describes this book as well. However, unlike many textbooks that are written by people who only know theory, this book was written by someone who achieved tremendous success turning patents into profit.

Conclusion: If you are looking for a fun ride, don't buy this book. There are many other excellent, inspiring, easy-to-read books available that fulfill that need (I benefit from those books, too!). If you desire a thorough textbook that comprehensively describes the entire invention process in great detail, and throws in some fluff to keep it interesting, this book is a must for your collection.