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Has anyone developed my idea already?
Posted on February 7th, 2011 2 commentsIf you have an idea for a new product, service or innovation then you are probably wondering if anyone has done it before. This is a question which is often asked by the budding entrepreneur and there is no stock answer. This blog post aims to help you find out if someone has developed your idea and more importantly if it has been patented.
It all starts with an idea.
There is nothing quite like the feeling you get when you have an idea for an innovative product. You get excited about how your product can make peoples life easier and how you will be recognised for your achievements.
Become friends with Google.
It is important to protect your idea but it is more important to find out if your idea has been done before. At this stage you should become best friends with Google.com & Espace.net. These search engines will help you find out if someone has developed and launched your product idea already and also if it has been patented.
Google web & Google images is a great way to search the internet for any existing products. You can use words which describe you product idea and Google will find any content which relates to these words. You will need to spend time looking through websites, blogs and images to establish if there is any record of your product idea in the public domain.
Espacenet is a search engine for the Intellectual Property Office where you can search for patents in your field. Patents use a very specific language which is sometimes hard to follow so I would suggest to search for something which already exists to familiarise yourself with the layout. When you open a Patent document you will find a number of titles, the one to focus your attention on is the ‘Claims’. The claims are a list of points which describe the patented and protected elements of the product which cannot be copied.
The next step…
If you complete these processes and find that you are the first person to have the idea then you need to protect it. By familiarising yourself with the patent process you will understand how to protect your idea. It is best to talk to professionals at this stage who can establish if your product idea is feasible and patentability.
You can talk to product development companies like ourselves without a patent and can protect your intellectual property by signing a nondisclosure agreement (NDA). An NDA is a legally binding contract between two people which ensures your ideas are protected.
Links
Design, Intellectual Property, Invention, MotionTouch, Patents, Product protection Advice, Espace, Google, Ideas, Intellectual Property, Invention, MotionTouch, Product Development, Success2 responses to “Has anyone developed my idea already?”
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Thanks for this. I have been worrying about my idea and whether or not someone has already gone ahead with it. Using your help, I haven’t found it anywhere else so thank you for the heads up!
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trisha February 11th, 2011 at 13:38
I found that non dusclosure agreements protected my idea until I had the confidence and backing to get a patent.
Everyone has ideas…. but not everyone has good ideas. But you can turn an idea into a better idea with experiments and testing.
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John February 11th, 2011 at 13:27