Here is a short blurb on business organization from Ronald J. Riley.
After filing for your patent (s) you need to organize your business. This is important to prepare for the inevitable conflicts you will have over patent infringement. Large businesses strengths are their marketing organizations and their deep pockets. Both give them an advantage over you if they decide to infringe your ideas. You need to neutralize that advantage. I recommend that you form one or more corporations to shield your assets from any attack a well healed infringer might launch. Being well shielded from attack is a big deterrent that often will keep your adversary from launching one in the first place.
I believe it is best to hold patents in your own name rather then assigning them to your company. You should form a corporation whose purpose is to market the inventions. Have a contract that licenses the right to market the patents and any products created on a non-exclusive basis to your marketing corporation. This contract needs to specifically state that it is not transferable to new ownership of the corporation and that it is renewable at six month or one year intervals at the licensor's sole discretion. The purpose of the contract is to create a situation where a judgment against your marketing corporation is worthless because the right to market the invention is not transferable. This approach reserves the right for you to license the patent to others if your first corporation comes under attack by an infringer or for any other situation such as product liability.
The purpose of the corporation is to shield you and your patents from a company that has deep pockets and tries to break you with harassing litigation. Your marketing corporation should have minimal assets. You must operate the corporation precisely as proscribed by federal and state laws. This means that all the necessary meetings and paper work must be done in the manner dictated by laws where your corporation is formed for it to limit your liability.
The full text can be found at: www.inventored.org/marketing (Copyright 1994 - 2000 by Ronald J. Riley)
Another aspect of the invention industry is stated beautifully by Ed Zimmer.
…Commercially speaking, nothing counts 'til it sells. It's just as difficult -- maybe more difficult -- to sell something as it is to develop it. And ignoring, or rejecting, that fact is a sure path to failure.
Don't underestimate the need for partnering. It's one thing to find opportunities. It's quite another to take advantage of them. That requires preparation -- understanding what's needed to succeed in business -- and developing, arranging, lining up relationships and resources that allow you to act when the time comes. And -- surprise -- that preparation turns up many more opportunities. (The opportunities were always there, but most people -- for reasons I can't explain -- don't "see" them until they're prepared to act on them.)
The essential resources for exploiting opportunities are the fundamental business skills. Given these skills, all else flows. Without them -- all of them -- any attempted venture is doomed to fail. And recognize that these skills come in the form of people. Whatever it is that you're really good at, you need "partners" who are equally good in the other skills.
There are four skills necessary to successful business. I'll give them manufacturing labels, but they apply equally to any business.
• Engineering - the skill to invent and develop new products (or services).
• Manufacturing - the skill to deliver them, consistently and reliably, with quality, service, and price.
• Selling - the skill to sell them.
• Business - the skill to make a profit doing the other three.
The skills necessary to start a business are Engineering and Selling. The skills of Manufacturing and Business determine, more, how long you'll stay in business. The level of quality needed in these skills is determined by the level at which you wish to compete. If you wish to compete in a local or small niche market, e.g., crafts, you need to be very good in one, and at least passable in the others.
The full text can be found at: www.tenonline.org/art/9408.html
|
