Exclusivity Archives - innovationlaunch.com

The biggest lie about patenting your inventions

wpx_ — Wed, 22 Feb 2023 10:35:59 +0000

Which untruth is most damaging to inventors?

The first thing you’re told when you come up with an invention is to get a patent. Many inventors believe this. In most countries, this isn’t true. It’s like buying collision insurance for a car that you’re going to build from a kit before you’ve even read the instructions.

Far more important is to understand whether there is a market for your invention, will your idea fly! Of course, you need to keep the details of your invention secret, but there are many ways to validate your idea without revealing the invention details. For instance, focus on validating the benefits that your invention brings to customers, rather than the features and workings.

So why do so many of us try and seek a patent straight away? It’s because we believe that if we don’t file for a patent right away, we could lose our invention if somebody else does.

A patent is not an automatic monopoly right. It is a litigation document. It is drafted and filed precisely for that purpose – to be used in litigation. A patent gives you the “right to prevent” others from making, using, selling, promoting for sale, or importing your invention in the country where your patent was issued.

It’s the right to sue anyone you believe has infringed your invention. It does not guarantee that there is a market or that you’ll make money.

Many of us are led to believe that getting a patent is the first step of a two-step process, to fame and fortune. First you get the patent – then you license it. This is a fairy tale.

It’s the old “get rich quick” scheme. It’s the belief that the path to success is quick, easy and risk free. It has a strong appeal.

Now watch some of the dumbest patents ever invented:

6 Dumbest Patents of All Time

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What Exactly Is Disruptive Innovation?

wpx_ — Tue, 21 Feb 2023 19:07:25 +0000

Now when it comes to taking over a market leader in an established market, it is generally accepted that there are only two ways to accomplish this goal:

Buy the current market leader
or Disrupt the market with a radically alternative offer.

That’s it, you’ll never get there by incrementally improving your product along the same lines as the market leader. Because how ever fast you improve, the market leader is doing the same with more resources due to the the greater profits that the leader enjoys from their leadership position. Everything is in their favour, they’ve got the brand, the market loyalty, greater volumes and supply chain clout to get the best deals.

The term was coined by Harvard Professor, Clayton Christensen in his book The Innovator’s Dilemma (Management of Innovation and Change) and described in the explainer video below:

The chink in the market leader’s armour, is the fact that they have been listening to the customer too much. Generally, what happens as a market matures, the leader gets very good at listening to the customer and incorporating improvements in the product or service accordingly.

However with time, the cost just keeps going up with the improvements, leading to the opportunity for an innovator to come in and win in particular niches in the market where cost has become a problem. With time, the lower cost attracts lots of new niches because the costs are now much more viable and they were never that impressed by the previous improvements. Clayton calls these over-served improvements. Furthermore, customers are very bad at asking for things that they don’t understand where the product is under-served. Henry Ford once said:

“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”

So there is the opportunity for a smaller company or even a startup with much fewer resources to unseat the leader by thinking about the market differently.

Richard Koch in his book The Star Principle: How it can make you rich provides a formula for finding these chinks and addressing the market with a new innovation that:

Addresses an under-served outcome that re-categorises the market
That takes something away and simplifies the product

Eventually, the new product category niche substitutes out the main market and now becomes the norm.

He gives the example of Betfair, which was a great investment for him. With Betfair, they allowed punters to bet against other punters rather than well informed professional bookmakers who would take a much bigger margin. Betfair gets a fixed transaction fee and no more. This new model addressed an underserved-need, but better still it simplified the market by using the internet to match gamblers together and hence remove the costs of high-street betting shops. “Win/Win”

The rest is history.

Do you have an idea for a disruptive innovation?

The post What Exactly Is Disruptive Innovation? appeared first on innovationlaunch.com.

Is my business idea going to fly?

wpx_ — Mon, 22 Feb 2016 11:43:32 +0000

If you’re one of the many people who’ve emailed me recently about your new business idea or innovation, firstly, congratulations! It’s not always easy to come up with a great idea but you’ve done it.

While I try to respond to everyone individually, there are common themes coming through which I’ll address in this blog.

Understandably, plenty of you are raring to get your business plan in place, raise some money and launch your product.

But wait!! What you do next can make the difference between success and failure.

The traditional route to evaluating your business idea is to put together a detailed business plan with market evaluation, costings, and profit projections.

But before you get buried under business plans and funding negotiations, not to mention throwing away your own money, resources, and energy for the next 6 months, you need to stop and question whether your idea is compelling in the first place.

Is your big idea market driven? Your business plan won’t tell you if the fish (customers) will bite!

However, I’ve learnt from bitter experience what separates a good idea from a non-starter. Really it comes down to just 3 questions.

Is there a market?
Is there high value to this market?
Can you get some kind of exclusivity?

At Innovation Launch we can help you find the answers to these questions. Sign up to the Innovation Launch Litmus Test to discover if your business idea is a flier.

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