Over the past few months, we’ve posted a lot of information, consisting mostly of summaries relating to intellectual property, patents, commercialization and other related topics. None of these articles are comprehensive, and they are not meant to be – they were simply meant to help a novice acquaint his or her self with some of the processes involved in these areas.
We’ve been concentrating on three general areas:
- Having an idea
- Protecting the idea and
- Turning the idea into something useful
Intellectual property is an interesting term – the words themselves seem to refer to things you own in your head. But, to expand on that, to make the idea useful, takes work, perseverance and a sometimes difficult but vital dose of honesty.
We are a country and a people built on innovation and risk. Ideas are great, but good ideas that are not implemented are useless.
And, while we have harped on the concept that, if there is no market for the idea then it might need to be abandoned, keep in mind that creativity is not black and white – true innovation rarely is planned.
Penicillin, potato chips, Teflon and Viagra have one thing in common: they were each discovered by accident.
So, despite our harping, an idea that seems nutty might just change the world for the better.
It’s a tough, unexplainable and impossible balance. No one can truly tell 100% of the time when to quit and when to continue a pursuit.
All we can do is keep in mind a quote from someone who knew a whole lot more about ideas than anyone else:
“If at first, the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it.” – Albert Einstein
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