MommyMillionaire

Inventor Question

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Here's my response to a question from Mishell, posted below as a comment in What Would Mommy Millionaire Do? Mishell wanted to know how best to prepare for an upcoming inventors forum.

Dear Mishell,

Wow. Sounds like you have your hands full as an inventor with 4 kids! You go girl!

Before you go to the inventor's convention, I want to make sure you've taken every precaution possible to protect yourself before you present your idea to a group of strangers. Believe me, this is way more important than whether you give a good presentation.

The first thing you need to do is file a Provisional Patent Application. I go into this in detail in my book MOMMY MILLIONAIRE http://www.amazon.com/Mommy-Millionaire-Kitchen-Million-Dollars/dp/0312354576. A Provisional Patent Application (PPA) costs under $100, and consists of three pages: a cover page, a description of your idea, and a drawing. You can learn more about PPA's at the United States Patent and Trademark Office at www.USPTO.gov. A PPA basically gives you patent-pending protection in the marketplace while you take your idea to presentations like yours, or test the market to see if you can manufacture the idea at a price anyone is willing to pay.

In addition to a PPA, you should also carry with you everywhere you go a Nondisclosure Agreement or NDA. You can learn more about NDA's at www.nolo.com. You can't get everyone to sign an NDA at a presentation you make, so the PPA will protect you. If you haven't adequately protected your intellectual property, you won't have anything to license and people can take your idea.

I don't know exactly what kind of company you're presenting to. You should do your homework on them, because unfortunately there are some unscrupulous inventor groups out there. I think it would really be in your best interest to do your homework on the potential market for your product, for your own benefit. You can't really understand the value of what you're selling until you've investigated the potential market.

You don't need your husband to make the presentation. The only way to prepare for a presentation is to PRACTICE. Write down what you want to say, and practice it in front of a mirror, your husband, or better yet, your kids. They'll be totally honest with you. Make sure it doesn't go a second beyond ten minutes. If you're afraid of not being taken seriously, make sure you wear a conservative suit or professional looking casual clothes, like khakis and a blouse. Don't go out and buy a new suit for this. If you need professional help, go to your local SCORE office, Service Corp of Retired Executives, http://www.score.org, and the local office of the Small Business Development Center, http://www.sba.gov/aboutsba/sbaprograms/sbdc/index.html.

You can do it.
Believe in yourself.
Change the rules,
Join the revolution.

Good Luck & God Bless,

Kim Lavine

WWMMD--Trademark Question

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Hi Susan,

Thank you for your question below in "WHAT WOULD MOMMY MILLIONAIRE DO?". It's a good one and I've had additional experience with it related to your specific question.

Yes, it is true that you can still register a trademark if it is in a different product category or class from an existing trademark of the same name currently in use. Therefore, I could have conceivably registered Luvit for my spa therapy pillow, even though it was currently in use by a brand of toilet paper. There is a risk in doing so, however. The examining attorneys for the United States Patent and Trademark Office will spend extra time investigating your claim, and comparing it to any possibly similar categories registered to the original trademark owner. If they have any reason to think there is a possibility for confusion in the marketplace over the use of the marks, they will decline your application, and you will lose your nonrefundable application fee.

I had additional experience when I tried to register a mark using two words, one of which was a very common word--boss. A trademark owner who utilized the word "boss" in their mark, sent me a "cease and desist" order as soon as they saw I had made an application for my mark. This particular trademark owner was a very big company who very aggressively policed their trademark through a monitoring of public filings on the USPTO.gov. I realized right away that they had significant financial and legal resources to make my getting a trademark difficult and costly--even though I was using a very common word as an element of my mark--so I decided to abandon my application, losing my nonrefundable application fee in the process.

As you can see, there are a lot of variables involved in a decision to pursue the registering of a trademark. Doing a thorough search at www.uspto.gov of existing trademarks is step number one. After that, measuring your desire for your particular mark against any possible risks for successfully getting it, is a personal decision.

If you are reading this blog and have a question you want to ask me, post it as a comment below under What Would Mommy Millionaire Do and I'll try and answer it for the benefit of others as well.

Good luck and God Bless,

Kim

What Would Mommy Millionaire Do?

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Do you have a question for me? Now's your chance to ask it. In response to the hundreds of emails I get asking me for advice and guidance, I've decided to give you the opportunity to ask and get your questions answered here, where other people can get the benefit of the advice as well.

To ask me a question, just add a comment to this email.

Good Luck & God Bless,

Kim

How I spent my summer vacation

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Like every other woman across America, I am longing to hear those three little words--Back to School. If you're like me, you are on your last nerve trying to entertain kids who are now B-O-R-E-D with everything. In fact, I figure my job as a mother is done, if at the end of summer vacation my kids respond to the question "Do you want to go to the beach?" with "No--we're bored with the beach!" I've managed to earn the same response to the question "Do you want to go to the pool?" My kids are so bored with having fun, they are begging to go back to school. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

I got so tired last week trying to entertain these now bored kids in these last few dog-days of summer that I forgot about taking them to the library to make them read, forgot about trying to make them go outside every minute and play, forgot about trying to save the poor cat, who has been put in every box we have this summer, put together to form tunnels, and castles, and airplanes and well--cat houses--that I actually broke down and spent $300 from my first book royalty check to buy them a Wii game system from Nintendo. Now, don't judge me too harshly. I was desperate to save that poor cat! I was willing to pay anything to have some peace for the last three weeks of summer vacation, not interrupted by bickering, shrieking, or loud bangs of unknown origin. Just getting the Wii required motherly heroism of epic nature! My many trips to the local electronic superstore to purchase the Wii has resulted in so many laugh-in-my-face "Lady, are you crazy?" comments, that I was desperate. I resorted to flying to New York, to make my way to the Nintendo store at Rockefeller Center, where I pushed other weaker moms out of my way and walked over their writhing bodies on the floor to bring home the Wii to my needy kids. I'm kidding of course--but that's my story to my kids and I'm sticking to it. The truth is, I was in town on business--that rare week when a tornado touched down in Brooklyn, and all the subways shut down, and it was a hundred degrees, and Manhattan was a parking lot, and every cab we got into we ended up abandoning because we could walk faster, and---gees, I needed some peace and quiet when I got home! Abracadabra--Wii to go!

Alas, the Wii has proved to be like a big dose of sugar--making my kids giddy with excitement and hyperness for a week, only to burn them out with a hangover of overstimulation. Now I'm back to trying to save the cat. Hey, can you say you really lived your childhood well if you haven't spent the last days of your summer vacation mindlessly watching cartoons sitting on the couch and eating Fruit Loops out of the box, until your eyes get red and you get a headache? My job as a mother? DONE!