Archive for December, 2009

Provisional Patent Applications – - Avoiding the Tripping Points – Part I

Monday, December 28th, 2009

At my patent and commercialization workshops across the country, I’m always asked about provisional patents, and more specifically if another provisional patent can be filed once the original has expired.  I’m quick to explain there’s no such thing as a “provisional patent.”  What they intended to ask about is a provisional “patent application,” or PPA.  My answer to that question is “yes,” a new PPA may be filed under certain circumstances.  But, it’s important to have a sound appreciation for the PPA and its purpose.  There are tripping points to avoid.

PPA’s are filed for (at least) two key reasons:  (1) to establish an early filing date recognized throughout the world as an invention priority date; (2) to acquire patent pending status for applicant’s invention (clearly and fully described in the PPA*) for up to 12 months following the priority date.  *Note:  Without this, it’s worthless.

The PPA itself is never examined by the US Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO).  If the inventor wishes to file an application that will be examined and hopefully mature to a patent grant, a “non-provisional patent application,” or NPA, must be filed.  Further, if the inventor wishes to enjoy the benefit of the earlier PPA priority date, the NPA must be filed within the PPA 12 month period and include a specific claim to that benefit.   As a caution, I always point out the potential stumbling blocks when it comes to filing a PPA and/or NPA.

First of all, inventors can lose patent rights if they make a public disclosure of their inventions more than a year before establishing an application filing date.  Putting this another way: Under US Patent Law, once an invention is disclosed to the public, a patent application (PPA or NPA) must be filed within a one year “grace period,” if a patent grant is to be pursued.  Otherwise, the inventor is “barred” from obtaining the patent.  Notably, patent laws of other nations do not (yet) include a grace period.  If the inventor’s objectives include retaining rights to foreign patents, the PPA or NPA must be on file before any public disclosure takes place.

So, here are the most common tripping points.  When an inventor files a US PPA, the subsequent NPA and any foreign filing must be executed within the PPA 12 month timeframe.  When an inventor publicly discloses an invention and later files a PPA or NPA under the US grace period invoked by the disclosure, essentially all foreign filing rights are lost.

This leads us back to the initial question:  Can one file another PPA when the first PPA expires?  The answer is yes, assuming the inventor remains diligent, and that such filing is not barred by expiration of a grace period invoked by public disclosure.  Of course, the previously established PPA goes to Provisional Heaven at the end of its 1-year lifespan, and takes its filing date with it.

PPA’s do provide advantages but, as pointed out, they do have an ugly underside.  If there seems to be interest in this subject, Part II will reveal still more tripping points…along with some underappreciated advantages of the PPA.

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About Don Kelly (in his words): Hi…I’m Don Kelly, patent agent, certified licensing professional…and an ardent fan of Yakaboutit. I live at I live at www.patentagentplus.com …and can always be tapped for some free advice…for what it’s worth :o )   Above are some tips for inventors with great ideas.  Please let me know what you think…especially if you have informative comments or additions.  I’d like to make this a highly interactive, informative blog…but not so complex that it defies understanding.  Feedback on this sample would be most enlightening.  And don’t pull any punches.  I’ve been around so long those punches simply add to my addled nature.

Posted in Patents & Trademarks | Comments Off

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays

Friday, December 25th, 2009

Just thought I’d share this insightful and inspiring message once spoken by Mother Teresa of Calcutta.  Enjoy your Christmas day with your family and friends as well as the upcoming new year.  Hoping 2010 will be your most gratifying year yet!!

THE FINAL ANALYSIS

People are often unreasonable, illogical

and self-centered.

Forgive them anyway,

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish,

ulterior motives;

Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends

and some true enemies;

Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;

Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building,

someone may destroy overnight;

Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;

Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, People will forget tomorrow;

Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have,

and it may never be enough;

Give the world the best you have anyway.

You see, in the final analysis,

it is all between you and God;

It was never between you and them anyway.

-Mother Teresa of Calcutta-

Posted in Inspirational | 1 Comment »

How much do I charge for my new product/service?

Sunday, December 20th, 2009

The first rule of pricing is: “Price the product based upon what the customer is willing to pay… Not what it cost to produce it.” The consumer is buying what the product will do for him/her. The (retail) price is how much the consumer values that item.  What the supplier (inventor/entrepreneur) essentially is doing is extracting the difference between the cost to produce and that “consumer product value”… This is also known as profit!

But how do you figure out a price “starting point” on a new product? What I’ve done successfully in the past is: 1) Find where the competition is for a similar product. If the next closest similar product is (ex.) $20, then figure your new and better “mouse trap” can fetch $25 (20% to 25% higher). 2) Then, work your production cost backwards from the $25 retail price to figure out your maximum cost to produce the product.

Generally speaking, the maximum net production cost (labor, raw materials, packaging, shipping boxes, etc.) should be about 20% of the retail price (assuming you’re selling through a retailer). This should generate enough revenue to cover you, your overheads (Advertising, G&A, etc.) and the Reps and Distributors…While, at the same time, giving the retailer enough margin to put the product on the shelf.  Therefore, going back to our $25 retail price example, the maximum net cost to produce this product should be about $5.

When introducing a new product, always start with a higher retail price than you think the consumer will pay. You can always lower the price later if it’s too high, but it’s nearly impossible to raise the price once the product is on the retailer’s shelves.

Note from Jeff Gawronski:  Paul hits the nail on the head!  Those who have a new product invention could have a cost as high as 25% of retail, but any more puts the new entrepreneur in a risky situation.  What I have also seen and will touch on in a future post is the greed that takes hold of some inventors. Just because your new product could sell for more and your profit can be larger this is something that should be cautioned.  ’Why?’ you ask.  The reason is that if your pricing is set high you open the door for a smart business person realizing that there is room to sell a cheap knock off.  Make a great product, price it right, gain marketshare and you’ll also make the copy cat products less likely to succeed.

Paul Tuttobene is also an inventor that took an idea (Buck Magnet) and made it a reality.  He shares all the highs and lows in a must read book titled ‘INVENT-ONOMICS’  If you have an idea for a product invention before you go any further you have to read this book.

pricing

Posted in Inventing | 1 Comment »

Don’t be a Hostage – to your TECH company!

Sunday, December 13th, 2009

Have you ever visited a website only to find that the links don’t work, the pages load too slow or not at all and the ‘contact us’ form doesn’t work?  If you have then you know how annoying it is.  Even when sites like Twitter put up ‘cute graphics’ saying they are broken it is still annoying.  But behind the technical issues there is actually someone more annoyed than you are and that’s the entrepreneur whose website is ‘acting up’.  You see the vast majority of thinkers, inventors and idea people aren’t actually the ones who do the computer programming, rather the inventors dreams the idea and those tech savvy enough to implement are hired or outsourced for work.  So when the site has ‘broken features’ the entrepreneur can only hope that he/she hired intelligent people for the job.  If they did, a fix is often easy…. if they didn’t the hours turn to days and the site errors can become agonizing.

It happens to the best entrepreneurs… and my message to those inventors and entrepreneurs anxious that their website is not functioning as it should … DON’T BE A HOSTAGE!!

Thankfully for those entrepreneurs just getting into needing a website and working with computer programmers I, myself have dealt with internal IT employees, several outsourced companies and in general more IT people than I can count.  Does the talented IT person exist?  I am sure they do, the problem is that the profession is a bit of a cloak and dagger.  What I mean is that with technical issues it is very easy to pass the buck. I have yet to meet an IT professional that came out and said something didn’t work because of their poor coding or lack of attention to detail.  Often they will blame the end users or the hosting company or connection speeds.  For those entrepreneurs that aren’t technical, what should you believe?  Since your computer programming skills are limited you are at the mercy of the IT person. Do you believe them and save the relationship?  Or do you question them and create a rift?

The Answer:  Do what will make your business succeed.  Most IT people will try to scare you into thinking that no one is as good as them…. and each time I’ve heard it I laugh a little louder.  The truth is if you are having tech issues then there are a lot of IT people that are better, so don’t believe the scare tactics.  Often what appears at first to be solid functioning programming is often nothing more than a mask. Like a home if the foundation of your website is strong it will not break or have issues later (or at least limited issues), but if the overall architecture of your site is off or is not created optimally your site will run into problems.

The obvious goal is to avoid these issues, but if that is not possible and your website still has errors/issues here is what you can do:

  1. Find a third party you can trust.  Call a friend, hire a company or just someone with technical knowledge.  It will cost you in the short run, but have them review your site’s errors and openly discuss the reasons for the errors.
  2. Bring the errors up to your current company armed with the facts you learned from your consulting hire.  Give your current tech company a chance to solve the issues.  After all they should be fixing all the problems because you paid for a working website.  If they try to charge you for fixing errors their poor programming created you shouldn’t pay a nickel and in fact that’s a sign of them trying to take advantage (greed) of your lack of technical knowledge and you need to move on to #3.
  3. GET OUT! If your tech company/person doesn’t fix the problems, can’t fix the problems or more issues keep happening that is when you have to pull out.  Get all you ducks in a row, have a back-up copy of your website, locate a more qualified source and FIRE your IT person or firm.  Your business is at stake!

Remember with websites and technical stuff it is not if you will have tech issues, but more often when. Determine what’s normal and what’s not (consult w/ an expert or friend), fix the problems and if you need a new tech team to do it then GET OUT fast and HIRE SMART.   And if you don’t hire smart, remember that you can always try again.   Whatever you do don’t allow yourself to be a Tech Hostage!!

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Posted in Web Related | 3 Comments »

Say NO to your Dreams!?

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009

I launched my first business in January and the most important thing I have learned is that sometimes you have to say no to your dreams.

I never realized this before because I have never had a job that allowed me complete control over my workday. Before becoming an entrepreneur, I had a handful of salaried jobs that I excelled at, for the most part. (Who hasn’t been fired at least once?)

Most of my salaried jobs were as a reporter for daily newspapers. I was especially good at making deadlines, pursuing opportunities and leaving good impressions. My tasks were well defined and I was good at completing them.

But putting my future in my own hands seemed more promising than following directions in a tied-down corporate structure that moved like molasses. I craved the ability to try things, fail, learn, adjust, and try again. With my work ethic I knew I had a good shot at entrepreneurial success. Plus, you’ve heard newspapers aren’t doing so well, no?

What I quickly learned after launch is that more than working hard and putting in long hours, I had to prioritize my goals or BargainBabe.com would never work.

Everyday there were hundreds of things I needed to do but I could only accomplish about seven of them. I hesitated to prioritize because that meant putting a book, podcasts, regular videos, and a lot more on the back burner. Instead of prioritizing my goals, which meant saying no to a lot of dreams, I tried to work on all of them.

Guess what? I accomplished none of them!

I finally sat down with an advisor who specializes in marketing and business planning (read: my sister) and chose one goal – to make $50,000 off my blog – and put in writing the steps to reach the goal. Then we turned those steps into daily tasks that I created time for in my online planner.

Over a two hour lunch we came up with a six-month plan. The questions she asked me were simple. What is your top goal for your business? What are the main things you can do to accomplish that one goal? How many hours do you need to spend on each contributing task every day or every week to make progress?

Before I had a daily plan, I was working on a lot of goals and achieving none of them. Now I am focused on one goal – making $50,000 off my blog in six months – and making significant progress towards my one dream. When I get there, I’ll be ready to bite off one more dream.

About Julia Scott: Julia writes the savvy-spending blog BargainBabe.com, which helps folks save money on groceries, gasoline, and household bills.

Posted in Entrepreneurial | 1 Comment »

I can’t afford a publicity/public relations campaign — can I? (2 of 2)

Monday, December 7th, 2009

Signing up with the big firm doesn’t mean you’ll necessarily get an experienced associate working on your campaign. So are you getting what you are paying for? A friend of mine who works at a major PR firm gave me the following breakdown of billing fees in his office:

  • Interns/Junior Executives – bill at $75 / hour

(Very little, if any professional experience)

  • Account Executives – bill at $100 – $125 / hour

(1-3 years of professional experience)

  • Senior Account Executives – bill at $125 – $200 / hour

(Multiple years of professional experience. Agency decision makers.)

Compare those prices to many small PR shops or individual PR specialists. Many have started their own PR businesses after years of experience in the industry and typically charge $50 – $100 per hour to professionally launch and maintain your campaign. Many times, you can get a seasoned PR veteran who will work directly with you and your staff for cheaper than the “Intern/Junior” executive rate at a downtown firm.

However, one word of advice — when choosing a smaller firm or individual to do your PR, make sure they have the same tools that the bigger agencies do: updated media lists/contacts; personalized media distribution capabilities; professional clipping/tracking services to get copies of each of your media placements (articles, tapes from TV/radio shows) as well as the intangibles of expert communication/media relations skills and professional pitching prowess. If they are cheaper, but don’t have all the tools to help you in the best manner possible, you are probably better off spending a little extra money to make sure your campaign is launched and maintained correctly.

The major benefits of hiring a professional (individual PR specialist or PR firm) to launch your campaign are:

  • Proper Campaign Implementation – Improperly composed or poorly pitched campaigns are the major downfall of many PR efforts. Poorly written, over-commercialized media releases; uncalculated, misdirected mass e-mailing of the release pitch; no follow-up media relations/media request fulfillment; etc.. Your first impression to the media is a lasting one – make sure it’s a good one.
  • Media Contacts – Most PR agencies have established multiple media contacts over several years that can lead to much better and more numerous media placements for your campaign. Let their foot in the door benefit you.
  • Efficiency and Effectiveness – PR specialists/agencies generate publicity full time, 8-12 hours per day and know the ins and outs, shortcuts and secrets to getting the job done better and quicker. Sure you could hang your own drywall or do your own plumbing, but do you have the tools, the time and the expertise to make it cost effective? I always tell my clients, “You do what you do well, I’ll do what I do well and we’ll collectively move this business further up the ladder.”

One caveat when it comes to choosing a professional PR agency or individual to work with – signing up for a higher priced campaign doesn’t necessarily mean you will get better results than a cheaper campaign. And the inverse is true as well. Over the past year or so, many “low-cost PR/publicity services” have begun to pop up all over the Internet. Ones that promise to write and launch a press release for as low as $99. They are low in cost – because frankly many are low in quality. Bigger is not necessarily better, and cheap does not always mean a good bargain.

If you have the time, tools and talent to launch and maintain your own campaign, you should definitely do so. If not – there are a number of public relations/publicity firms, specialists and services out there. Research to find the one whose services and fees match your business plan. Once business owners, entrepreneurs, and inventors learn more about their options when it comes to launching a PR campaign — many find that they can’t afford NOT to have one.

About Todd Brabender (by Jeff Gawronski):  Todd Brabender is the President of Spread The News Public Relations, Inc.  His business specializes in generating media exposure and publicity for innovative products & services. Spread the News has been a new addition to the Yak About It team.  Within 3 weeks of PR effort Spread the News has already eclipsed the effort of the previously contracted PR firm, which was on our team for 2.5 months. Entrepreneurs beware there are PR agencies that will spend all their time telling you they are ‘close’ to a big PR hit only to gain you nothing and take your money.  It is hard to really know the work level put in.  Yak About It is pleased to be able to endorse Spread the News for being a firm that works hard to get you noticed!  If your business is ready for affordable PR services contact Todd directly at:  (785) 842-8909

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I can’t afford a publicity/public relations campaign — can I? (1 of 2)

Friday, December 4th, 2009

It’s a phrase I hear over and over again from many entrepreneurs, small businesses owners and inventors: “I’d love to hire someone to launch our publicity campaign professionally, but we can’t afford it, so I’m just going to have to do it on my own.”

Over the past several months, I have been conducting an informal survey among entrepreneurs and business owners who have contacted me about my services. I have found that due to their lack of information or knowledge on the topic, many businesses typically over-estimate or over-budget the cost of a prospective public relations/publicity campaign. During my PR consultation with them, I asked: “How much do you think it will cost to launch a solid, effective PR/publicity campaign for your product/business?” Of the 102 people I’ve queried:

  • 11% – Thought a professional PR campaign would cost $10,000+ per month
  • 32% – Thought a professional PR campaign would cost $5,000-$10,000 per month
  • 39% – Thought a professional PR campaign would cost $3,000-$5,000 per month
  • 12% – Thought a professional PR campaign would cost $1,000-$3,000 per month
  • 6% – Thought a professional PR campaign would cost less than $1,000 per month

The truth is — you can get a publicity/PR campaign in all of those price ranges. What you get for your money and how effective the campaign will be is the real question. It is true that the more you pay the more you get. But getting the most publicity/PR exposure doesn’t mean you have to get most expensive PR agency or specialist.

A good rule of thumb is to align yourself with a PR business that best reflects your business size. Most times their rates will be in line with your prospective PR budget. If you are a small business owner with two employees, you need not hire a high-dollar PR agency with dozens of employees. Find a PR business whose office size and capabilities closely resemble your business.

Case in point — there is a large PR agency in a fancy building downtown a few miles from my office. Frankly, we are not even competition to each other – in fact we have even referred clients to each other. Why? They typically work with large corporations and implement campaigns of around $10,000 per month. Mechanically, the downtown firm and my business do the same thing when it comes to PR campaigns: professional media release composition; extensive media market research; articulate personalized distribution to the media; months of media relations (article placements/interview scheduling/media request fulfillment, clipping/tracking of media placements, etc.).       ……..Look for PART 2 on 12/7/09

About Todd Brabender (by Jeff Gawronski):  Todd Brabender is the President of Spread The News Public Relations, Inc.  His business specializes in generating media exposure and publicity for innovative products & services. Spread the News has been a new addition to the Yak About It team.  Within 3 weeks of PR effort Spread the News has already eclipsed the effort of the previously contracted PR firm, which was on our team for 2.5 months. Entrepreneurs beware there are PR agencies that will spend all their time telling you they are ‘close’ to a big PR hit only to gain you nothing and take your money.  It is hard to really know the work level put in.  Yak About It is pleased to be able to endorse Spread the News for being a firm that works hard to get you noticed!  If your business is ready for affordable PR services contact Todd directly at:  (785) 842-8909 todd@spreadthenewspr.com or check out: http://www.spreadthenewspr.com.

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