2) Could you get a patent?
3) Is your idea new?
4) Patent information
5) Business information Send us a comment
Assessing whether your idea is worth the effort.
Here is our non-exhaustive compilation of green flag areas. Congratulations if
any of these apply to your idea but - if none of these apply it is NOT a negative
sign. Identifying positive innovation indicators is very difficult.
Great idea sign 1 Products that large supermarkets would be willing to
stock. The holy grail! Your shelf price is 2 to 10 dollars/pounds/euros and the
product is of interest to the general public.
Great idea sign 2 Inventions that genuinely arose from R&D. Lots of
people are trying to come up with a money spinning idea - if no-one else was
likely to have come up with it by head-scratching then you are already ahead of
the game. It also helps with getting the attention of investors.
Great idea sign 3 Inventions useful in emerging markets. You've probably
missed the boat on Bluetooth, RFID tags and even VoIP, but an invention of use
for the next big thing could be worth millions. Remember that in the gold rush it
was the equipment suppliers who reliably made it big. Robotics and interactive
virtual reality might be worth thinking about.
Great idea sign 4 Inventions that aren't valuable now but will be in 5
years time. Much like sign 3. If you are thinking about something that has been
in the news for a while then you are competing with a huge number of people to
be the first to do something useful with it.
Great area 1 Packaging. Small, clever closing/sealing/packing mechanisms
that can be mass produced might be worth lots of money.
Great area 2 A new genre of web based novelty media content. If it's
funny and new enough that people will forward e-mails to each other with links to
it then combined with advertising it may make a small pile of money.
Great area 3 A cheap mass producible new corporate gift. Often easy to
bring to market with huge economies of scale. You may only have to convince
one medium sized organisation to back you.
Great area 4 Products for Babies Everyone wants to buy a new toy for the
new family member, new mothers are not set in their purchasing habits, and
families are mentally geared up to shell out for whatever they think the baby or
mother will need or like.
Great area 5 Pet products. Few claim to know what toy/chewable/grooming
device their cat or dog would want. It's a case of buy before you try. As an
example, in most supermarkets the pet product area is much bigger than the
baby product area.
Now you've read these have a look at our caution areas
Warning: Nothing in this document constitutes legal advice. Talk to a business
advisor and an intellectual property advisor in your country before taking any
action or making any decisions.
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Nothing on this site constitutes legal advice, an offer, an offer to treat or a legal relationship.
Always check with your IP consultant.
