Marketing Intellectual Property

I never really thought much before about how marketing an idea is a lot like marketing any other intellectual property, a manuscript, for example.

Then I read License Your Invention: Sell Your Idea & Protect Your Rights with a Solid Contract by Attorney Richard Stim. Chapter 5 has a long section warning against marketing scams.

Promoting an idea is an extreme test of marketing ability. All you can sell is the sizzle; you don't have any steak. Stim says that some marketers are not up to the challenge. He describes the "Invention Developers" law of 1999 and how it protects inventors from bad marketers. Definitely read the book for more information.

I learned more by talking for a long time to Charles Wieland, III, at Buchanan, Ingersoll & Rooney, about the patent process. He was both knowledgeable and helpful. If I had a patentable idea he could help me with, I would have signed up with him on the spot.