Millions from the Mind: How to Turn Your Invention--or Someone Else's--into a Fortune Book

But First, This Message...
Acknowledgments
Part I - Money: The Creative Part of Invention
Chapter 1 Going for the Gold
A Tradition of Ingenuity
Glossary
Who Says It Can't Be Done?
What Do the Winners Do Right?
Looking into the Crystal Ball
How Much is this New Product Worth... and to Whom?
Chapter 2 Dealing with Money
The Five Bridges to Success
What Makes Investors Say 'Yes'
What It Takes to Win
Dramatizing the Opportunity
Gold at Opposite Ends of the Rainbow
A Very Independent Inventor
Reality in Raising Money
How to Create Converts
Letting the Investor Participate
Chapter 3 Finding the Money Sources
Money Is Where You Find It
Relatives and friends
"Angels"
Limited Partnerships
Private Placements
Venture Capitalists
Your Banker
Your stockbroker
Government Agencies
Investment Bankers
Underwriters and IPO's
Partners
All the Friends You Can Get
Part II - Protection: Guarding the Gold Mine
Chapter 4 Using Patents as a Business Weapon
Using Patents for All They're Worth
A Patent Primer
The Business Side of Patents
Before You Go for a Patent
Making Your Patent Potent
What is Patentable?
A Picket Fence of Patents
The Right Patent Lawyer
Writing the Patent Application
Suing and Getting Sued
A New World for the Little Guy
Royalties and the Common Good
A Stance for Independents
Winners and Losers in Courtroom Battles
Losing and Winning and Why
Knowing When to Say Yes
Judgment Pending
Patent Lingo Glossary
Chapter 5 Building Other Proprietary Picket Fences
What's in a Name?
Trademark War Stories
Trademark Asset Management
Getting the Best Trademark
Protecting Your Trademark
Copyright? Right!
Designing Design Patents
Trade Secrets Sssshhh!
Buying Instant Exclusivity
Other Pickets for Your Fence
Chapter 6 Capitalizing on Intellectual Property
Patent, Patent, Who Gets the Patent?
Gould's Legacy for All Inventors
The Guys in the White Hats
What's it Really Worth?
Whose invention is it, anyway?
Getting Millions from the Mind to the Bank
How High is Up?
Another Round of Invention
Solving a Marketing Dilemma
What Are the Right Questions?
Chapter 7 Handling Foreign Rights...and Wrongs
Around the World in Eighty Ways
The International Patent Maze
Partnering Abroad
Exporting the Right Stuff
Licensing Abroad
What's So Different Over There?
Picking Partners, Market-by-Market
Do It Right or They'll Do You Wrong
Deciding Who Really is the Best Person
Part III - Product Concepts: Finding Pathways to Market
Chapter 8 New Product Marketing Insights - Part I
Spotting the Instant Winners
Spotting the Natural Opportunity
A New Twist on Corkscrews
Turning a Nightmare into a Business
Winners and Losers: Looking for Clues
Learning from Mistakes
Answering the Eagerness Equation Through Market Research
Focus Groups
One-on-One Interviews
Telephone Interviews
In-use Placement
Which Crystal Ball Should You Choose?
Uncommon Sense and Business Judgment
Watch the Blind Side
Chapter 9 New Product Marketing Insights - Part II
Finding the Channel to Market
Singer's Electric Sewing Machine
Lever's Gel Toothpaste
The Razor Blade Wars
Using Hindsight for Foresight
Differentiating New Products
Visualizing a Target Market
Inventing the Package; Packaging the Invention
The Myth of New Product Failure
Invention Marketing 101
To Market, to Market
Merging the Product and the Concept
Innovation Thought-Starters and -Stoppers
Part IV - Pathways to Millions: The Selling of Invention
Chapter 10 Licensing: The "Easy Route" to Money
The Licensing Preliminaries
A Many-Faceted, Happy Example
The Lot of the "Company Man."
What Do You Have to Sell?
What Should you License?
Placing Limits on the License
To Whom Should You License?
The Point of Entry
Permutations of Presentations
Making the Best of the Unexpected
LETTER OF AGREEMENT FOR INVENTION OWNER MAKING DISCLOSURE
MUTUAL SECRECY AGREEMENT
Chapter 11 Licensing Agreements: Getting Yours and Keeping It
How Much, How Soon, How Sure
How High is Up?
Statesmanship in Licensing
A Licensing Map and Compass
Setting the financial terms
Front Money
Beating the Lawyers
Be Flexible
Whence Cometh My Help?
Chasing Rainbows, Chasing Money
An Example of "Heads of Agreement."
Chapter 12 Start-ups: The "Hard Way" to Money
Inventing Answers to Business Problems
Starting-Up as a Road to Licensing
Making a Business of "Small" Inventions
The "Big Time" Small Start-Up
Turning a Small Product into a Big Business
Start-up as a Prelude to Licensing
Not Just a Promise, but a Threat
Profile of the Successful Inventor
Chapter 13 Start-ups: The Common Ground Rules
"Take It in the Ear!"
Finding a Niche and Possessing It
Packaging Inventions
Computer Start-ups: Hard and Soft
A Case of Not-So-Artificial Intelligence
Is There a "Right" Way?
Inventing Answers for Start-up Companies
1. Who is going to run the company?
2. What kind of company do you want to build?
3. What is the real competition?
4. How can you build credibility?
5. Can you take care of yourself?
To Start or Not to Start, Always the Question
Chapter 14 "Together or Separately"
The Human Side of Invention
Wisdom for Independent Inventors
Thinking Critically About Inventions
Wisdom for Corporations
Reaching In
Taking the Fear Out of New Products
Stretching the Outreach
Six Steps to Dialogland
Appendixes
Appendix A Inventors and Their Inventions Index
By Inventor
By Invention
By Company
By Trademark
Appendix B An Inventor's Bookshop
Appendix C Comprehensive Index
Figures
Figure 1 - Dental Rinse Method Patent, Richard Berger, Plax
Figure 2 - Plax Trademark, Richard Berger
Figure 3 - Ad from United Technologies "Think" series
Figure 4 - Dental Rinse Composition Patent, Richard Berger, Plax
Figure 5 - Colorocs' First Patent
Figure 6 - More of the first Colorocs Patent
Figure 7 - Colorocs Patent Detail Images
Figure 8 - Do's and don't's of gift giving abroad
Tidbits
Front matter
Davis' (Levi's) riveted pocket-openings pantaloons drawing
Davis' (Levi's) riveted pocket-openings pantaloons specification
Ford's fuel injected engine drawing (large)
Chapter 1
Eli Whitney's cotton gin
Samuel Colt's first U.S. revolver patent...
Bell's first telephone patent
Gray's caveat drawing/Bell's patent cont'd
Ford's fuel injector patent
Edison's light bulb patent
Whittle's main jet engine patent heading
Otis' elevator safety brake
Chapter 2
Bell's first telephone patent cont'd, with claims
Carothers' first nylon patent
Plunkett's Teflon patent
Ford's fuel injector viewed from above
Ford's fuel injector detail drawings