Starting a Company Based Around an Invention Idea

You have a great idea that will amaze the world, but without much use on the free market, would you be willing to start a company for it? Sure, you may have some neat ideas, but the world may not have a use for them (at least not at the moment).

Profitability is what makes or breaks an invention idea, and especially if you rely on funding from other people. There are endless ideas that never even make it to the patent office, let alone on a market shelf, because they are without money behind them.

Are There Similar Patents?

There are more inventions that you may think—they are just hidden within the depths of the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Simply go to the official website at Uspto.gov, search using keyword combinations and see what comes up. Upon examination, you may find several patents that already cover what your idea accomplishes, even if somewhat indirect.

If your potential patent is on the creative side of things, you may use a prior art search to see if there is artwork related to your idea. This would obstruct your ability to file a patent, even though it’s not listed on the USPTO website.

For actually filing a patent, you may recruit an invention company to work out the difficult details. Getting accepted may not be so straightforward as you might think.

What Are Other Companies Doing?

Having the official due diligence covered is one thing. Finding where your product fits into the live marketplace is another. The vast majority of patents don’t make a profit, if they were ever even applied at all. Whether you like it or not, this step requires some thorough market research.

Besides general consumer trends, you should examine what other companies are doing with their products. Are they missing something? Can you offer them something to improve their productivity? Can you do it better? You need to reflect on where your idea has a place in the world.

Once you’ve decided on how to put your product in place, you can draft a business plan for yourself or present it to others. You should take note of finances, risks, profitability, and people you need to hire. If you need help translating your invention to a marketable product, there are companies out there that specialize in just that.

Bringing It To Life

To bring your invention to life, you need to have some sort of physical proof that it works the way it's intended. This would usually be the form of a prototype, which may be a fully working product or a partial construction to demonstrate a point. This would especially be handy for presentations and testing purposes.

At the very least, you should have diagrams or 3D renditions of what you want to make. Potential investors will want to visualize what a working product is like to determine profitability. You can type up a 100 page white paper, yet it won’t have the same power as a visual.

Of course, depending on what your invention is, there may be no use for a physical product. This could include things like process patents, computer programming, and other things you might imagine. In that case, you should still have digital equivalents to prototypes as working concepts to roll with.

At the end of the day marketing, connections and practicality will determine the longevity of your invention-based company. Be sure to read up on the business side of things as well as the technical aspects of your invention as it is a rough world out there.