When you start out with an idea you have a vision of what the product
will be like. After working on the idea for a while, the product starts
taking shape and you have something people can react to that will
indicate how the product will sell. You are entering a phase where you
may be spending a lot of money, and may need to get investment partners.
So you need to take a deep breath and reevaluate where you stand.
Inventors tend to move forward with lots of enthusiasm at this point.
But that can be a big mistake as now is your last stopping point before a
major investment.
This article will have a summary of the five points, the next five articles will cover each of the five points in more depth.
- How effective are your patent claims? Many, many times inventor's patent claims are scaled back by the patent office and they end up not being significant. The way to judge a patent claim is how many qualifiers or steps there are. When the first claim (the most important claim) has four or five points, a competitor only needs to only be different in only point to not violate the patent.
- Does the product have good value when compared to competitive products? People are solving the problem your product addresses in some other way. If your product costs the same as other solutions, but does a much better job, then you are providing value. If it costs less, that is even better.