Did you own one of these? Or do you know somebody who did? Most likely, there have been some 250 million Slinky's sold. In 1943, the inventor Richard James came up with this toy, and received a patent on January 28, 1949 titled: Toy and method of use. When the inventor first demonstrated his invention at a department store in Philadelphia in november 1945, he sold his total stock of 400 Slinky's within one and a half hour. While mass production costs were below 5 cent, Richard could sell them initially for one dollar a piece. An excellent 95% gross margin, definitively worth protecting with in ..read more

One of the most known trademarks on the planet is this bottle. A trademark on a bottle.... that is interesting, here is why: Most intellectual property lapses after a specific time. Not so for trademarks.. You can have a trademark to infinity..... The image below is a design patent from 1937 on the Cola bottle, which finally lapsed in 1951, after the maximum protection of 14 years.... Yet, the Coca cola company managed to secure a trademark on the bottle on April 12, 1960. And,... after a quick inspection, and not very surprising, the trademark has been renewed ever since and is still in forc ..read more

Your product will be copied under certain conditions. One of the conditions is, evidently is, that your product or service is selling well and brings in sufficient profit... Once you reach that point, yes products may be copied... and you can defend yourself against this in various ways... Subscribe to my newsletter at: https://octrooifabriek.nl/#Subscribe for more on defending your innovations against copying.   Foto from Plagiarius website, 3rd price winner of the 2018 competition ..read more

The tape measure has been around for a while. Since 1868 to be more precisely. A rough estimation of the numbers sold is about 200 000 000... two hundred million... Just think whenever you have a good idea... how much it may sell... and how nice it is to have the exclusive rights to it.... Subscribe to my newsletter for more on patents and inventions.  ..read more

 Patent drawings can be very beautiful!  Subscribe for more about patents and innovation: https://octrooifabriek.nl/#Subscribe  ..read more

98% of all ideas die in the valley of death... This is the harsh reality of inventing.... Reasons for ideas to die are plenty: - not enough invested money, - not enough skilled people, - not enough market potential, - not enough selling force - etc. etc. In my upcoming newsletter I am going to present three fundamental tips to reduce the valley of death, and to increase the chances of survival of your idea. I will explain these tips with two real life examples: The company Helianthos, now Hyet, a developer and producer of flexible solar cells, and the company Ambri, a developer and produce ..read more

The valley of death.... every innovation has to go through... Most innovations will not survive the valley of death. How to increase the chances of survival of your invention, I will explain with some examples from real life in my next newsletter. I will present some tips to reduce both the width and the depth of the valley, and thus increase the chances of success of your innovation. Subscribe to my newsletter to learn more!  #patents and #inventions ..read more

Now that the weather allows for a nice ride, please remember, whenever you take your bike, that it runs on an invention of John Boyd Dunlop. He obtained a patent for his invention in 1894, complete with inner tube and outer tire... Until today a company exists, which is bearing the name Dunlop.. Subscribe to my newsletter for more on patents and inventions.  ..read more

Sometimes, you may think that inventions have to be very special, complex and/or solve intricate problems. Well in the light of relaxing covid measurements, the nice summery weather and the upcoming weekend, have a look at this: Quote: "The present invention provides a small umbrella ("Beerbrella") which may be removably attached to a beverage container in order to shade the beverage container from the direct rays of the sun." Here, the message is: Inventions do not have to be very special, complex or solve any intricate problems... Enjoy your weekend! Subscribe to my newsletter for more ..read more

An alternative to patent protection is keeping everything secret. For products that may not be the best protection. Yet, specific manufacturing techniques may sometimes actually be better protected by secrecy, especially when the final product does not disclose the way it has been made. The most outspoken Dutch example of a well kept trade secret is that of the way of producing microscopic lenses by Anthoni van Leeuwenhoek... Now some odd 300 years later, still, state of the art research is performed to find out the way he made his lenses......And it appears that he perfected commonly kn ..read more