The Business of Ideas: The Highs and Lows of Inventing and Extracting Revenue from Intellectual Property

By Gregory S Patterson

Knowing when an idea has the potential to generate revenue for its inventor and how to go about extracting that revenue is a dilemma shared by many inventors. Whether you are a seasoned inventor or a part-time tinkerer, this book will help you decide if your idea has value and how to reach the pot of gold at the end of the inventors rainbow.
With over twenty-five years of experience in military and consumer product development, the author is a prolific inventor who has been involved in all aspects of product design and development. Currently he is president and chief technical officer of Porticos, Inc., a full-service mechanical engineering and design firm in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, providing mechanical design services with a focus on innovative design, strategic planning, and technical direction. In this book, he shares his own personal and relevant experiences in an easy-to-understand and sometimes humorous style that will serve as an excellent reference for the inventor interested in generating revenue from his or her ideas.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Sep 14, 2012
• ISBN: 9781468580969

Gregory S Patterson

With over 25 years of experience in military and consumer product development, Greg Patterson has been involved in all aspects of product design and development. Currently he is President of Porticos, Inc., a full service Mechanical Engineering and Design Firm located in Research Triangle Park, NC, providing Mechanical Design services with a focus on innovative design, strategic planning, and technical direction. Greg's intellectual property portfolio is evidence of his passion for design and innovation. He currently holds 28 utility and design patents, with others pending, and multiple related publications in a broad spectrum of disciplines. Areas of innovation range from gas turbine engine operating software to consumer electronic devices. Prior to Porticos, Greg held numerous engineering and management positions at Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications (formerly Ericsson) and the military aircraft engine division of Pratt & Whitney. Greg earned his BS in Aerospace Engineering from North Carolina State University.

Book preview

The

Business

of

Ideas

The Highs and Lows of Inventing and Extracting Revenue from

Intellectual Property

Gregory S Patterson

Artwork by Josh Barrett

US%26UKLogoB%26Wnew.ai

AuthorHouse™

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Bloomington, IN 47403

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© 2012 by Gregory S Patterson. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 01/22/2013

ISBN: 978-1-4685-8097-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4685-8096-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012916271

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Acknowledgments

The Business of Ideas

1

About the Author

2

Introduction

3

Risk Versus Reward

4

By the Numbers: Cost

5

By the Numbers: Revenue

6

Single-Product Myth

7

Passion

8

Six-Month Rule

9

Look Again

10

Marketing Is King

11

Evolutionary Versus Revolutionary

12

All or Nothing

13

Extraction

14

Final Words

To all of the inventors and tinkerers who have aspirations of turning their ideas into a

profitable business.

Acknowledgments

I’d like to thank and acknowledge my father, O. E. Pat Patterson, for patiently teaching me how to build things with my hands and J. B. Kelly, who instilled in me the passion to be an inventor.

The Business

of Ideas

1

About the Author

It seems I have always been a tinkerer, at least for as long as I can remember. According to my mother, I show the same fascination for taking apart household items as I have read about in the biographies of other engineers in their youth. Growing up on a farm and having a father who seemed to be able to fix just about any piece of machinery afforded me many opportunities to learn how things worked. As a result, I spent many hours as the tool gopher for my father before it was finally my turn behind the wrench.

The absences of cable TV, Internet, or video games in my youth also gave me plenty of time to dream. Lightning-bolt guns (with aim capability, of course) and hydrostatic-drive, gas-turbine-powered Corvette conversions were among some of the more interesting things that I can remember dreaming about. The ideas seemed as limitless as my imagination.

When it came time to go to college, I debated between trying to become an astronaut and going into engineering. At only four foot nine as a high school senior, I was too short to be accepted as a pilot in the Air Force. So I chose the next best thing: aerospace engineering.

After graduating from North Carolina State University with a BS in aerospace engineering, I was fortunate enough to land a job with the military jet-engine division of Pratt & Whitney. It was there that my tinkering and dreaming culminated in inventing under the guidance of my boss, Jim Kelly. Jim was an active inventor himself and was supportive of my inventive spirit. That support, along with Pratt & Whitney’s interest in technology development and intellectual property, proved to be a fertile environment to cultivate my passion for innovation and problem solving.

Many years have passed since those days and my first United States patent: No. 4,959,955 Method of Operating Gas Turbine Engine with Fan Damage. I currently am named inventor on twenty-nine US patents with multiple foreign patents and others pending. While this is a far cry short of Edison’s amazing feat of 1093 patents at the time of his death (ranking him number four worldwide), it does exceed the fifteen-patent threshold for classification as a prolific inventor.

More importantly in the context of this book, I can say with confidence that I have been involved in all aspects of the invention and patenting process in a variety of fields, ranging from jet engines to consumer products.

In 2003, a few colleagues and I started Porticos, Inc., a product-development services company focusing on mechanical product design. We have developed products for many of the Fortune 500