You’ve come up with a great idea and worked hard to perfect it. Now you want to put your stamp of ownership on it to ensure that someone, or some company, doesn’t steal your idea out from under you. But is rushing from the drawing board to the patent office really in your best interests? Probably not. And does a patent really guarantee that you own

Further, in most countries a mutual nondisclosure agreement (NDA) signed by both the inventor and someone with whom the inventor wishes to show or discuss his idea can protect the confidentiality of an invention prior to submitting either a provisional patent application or regular nonprovisional patent application. This is a must in countries wher

You can write your own PPA, but I recommend using the PatentWizard software (http://www.patentwizard.com) from Neustel Law. We use it in my office to write our PPAs, and it works great.

Hands down, the most important thing I’ve learned is that I’m the one who has to be at the control panel, every step of the way—from the moment I conceive of an idea until it’s brought to market and beyond.

—STEPHEN KEY, LICENSED TO CCL LABEL, THE LARGEST PRESSURE-SENSITIVE LABEL MANUFACTURER IN THE WORLD; TO ACCUDIAL PHARMACEUTICALS (FOR CHILDREN’S LIQUID MEDICATION); TO ABC BEVERAGE (FOR DISNEY’S HANNAH MONTANA AND CARS); AND TO COCA-COLA MEXICO. My Spinformation rotating labels have sold more than 400 million units worldwide and are used on such pr

• A reproducible change in the decorative appearance, configuration, ornamental design, or shape of a utilitarian item (design patent). For example, a change in the appearance (not the functionality) of a bottle, chair, eyeglass frame, necklace, computer icon, type font. •

It has taken me awhile to learn some of these lessons, and I want you to avoid the mistakes I made! There was a time when all I talked about, all I thought about, all I did with my family had something to do with my ideas.

Do Your Homework Before Contacting an Attorney Before calling a patent or licensing attorney, learn as much as you can about the patent application process and about intellectual property protection. Make sure you also know how your idea will be manufactured, and document those manufacturing processes.

Make a list of the benefits your idea offers that similar products do not. Try to come up with at least three. Describe each benefit in one or two sentences. 2. Rank the value of each benefit on a numeric scale—with the benefit having the highest value being number one. 3. Create a one-line benefit statement for the number one benefit of your idea.