Have you had what you thought was a good idea? If so it may cost you a lot of money. When I was in the military about thirty years ago, I came up with what I thought was a good idea for a more efficient steam engine. I knew how a hydraulic motor worked and I figured I could drive it with steam instead of hydraulic fluid. My next thought was to incorporate a refrigeration system into the engine. I would take the heat from the steam engine exhaust and use it to preheat the steam going into the engine; thus making it a more efficient system. I had never tried patenting an idea or selling it to a company nor did I know if it would even work. I searched through books at the library on patenting and what I found was an ad in Popular Science advertising assistance in bringing your inventions to market. I wrote to them and told them of my idea and they agreed with me that it was a good idea and what I needed to do next was to do a preliminary paten search and they could do it for me for a reasonable price. I agreed to pay the money and waited to see what would happen. In about three weeks time they sent me back a letter saying “Congratulations your search was successful.” and that there were no other patens out there like this one. He went on to say that he would be glad to help me get it patented and he even offered a few suggestions on how to make it better; however, I saw no advantages to his suggestions. After a few more payments, the thought came to me, what proof do I have that he even did the paten search as he clamed or had I been robbed. I contacted a real paten attorney and asked them if I was being swindled by the other outfit? The attorney said that he had another client he had to see in that same general area and he would check on this at the same time. When he got back he related to me that he had dropped in to see the man and that he got very angry with him and ordered him to leave his premises. He told me that I did have a good case against him but it would cost me more money than I had already lost. As for patenting my idea he said we could start all over again and he would help me; but, I had no more money left at that time and that is were I left it, broke and a little bit wiser.
As I stated to some of you I wish to set up a web site dealing with innovation and hopefully other will not have make the same mistakes as I did. I did a web search on patens and those charlatans are still out there. My plan is to help those new innovators know what to do when they have a good idea. This site will be free to all. I am not saying that a professional may not advertise or charge for his services on this site but that there should be some sort of accounting for this privilege. The charlatans need to be restricted from the site.
What I need is your help in networking all of your friends and associates to this cause in order to drive it along. I need help in setting up the site, contacting those with good ideas and professionals with expertise in areas such as engineering, law, marketing, and sales. There are all sorts of good people out there willing to help a friend or a friend of a friend if only asked. Who do you know? The task is just too big for me alone; nor, can I be expected to know all the answers dealing with innovation, but together we can make a difference. Your question now may be, how will this help you individually, other than having a good feeling brought on by helping others; well with networking all your friends together and all of your friends having their friends networked together you can easily slip in your own request for help.
If you can help in this endeavor please respond.
