Art of the Kickstart Podcast Interview: Pitfalls and Mistakes Inventors Should Avoid and How to Protect Your Idea.

The initial path to patent an idea, product or solution requires some restraint since certain logical steps, such as online research, could prematurely tip-off your ideas to potential competitors.

Be careful when using Google, Amazon, eBay, GoDaddy and other popular portals and search platforms.

This issue is compounded by a major change in US patent law in 2013 which gives patent rights to a first to file system.

In order to safeguard ideas then, a logical first step is a patent search, which is similar to an x-ray prior to an operation.

This is when a patent attorney can assist, and only takes about 5-7 days to complete the search and between 4 to 12 weeks to file a patent typically.

Once your invention idea is filed with the US Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO), the idea is protected as patent pending, which allows entrepreneurs and inventors to raise money, generate sales based on the idea and so on.

Ideas and innovations can be cultivated at a young age and often come from people who are not innovators or from a particular industry. Often times, inspiration energizes everyday people who become passionate about solving a particular problem.

At times it could be a necessity driven innovation, such as during challenging times and catastrophes. Those crises turbo-charge problem solving innovation for a global community needing creativity fueled by expansive ingenuity.

Other times it could be repackaging an existing product or solution in a different way that impacts our daily lives.