Inventing For Dummies

Pamela Riddle Bird, PhD is the founder and CEO of Innovative Product Technologies, a Florida-based company that assists inventors in marketing their inventions.

• Foreword. Introduction.Part I: Making Your Idea Yours.Chapter 1: The Innovation Process.Chapter 2: Patent Basics.Chapter 3: Conducting a Patent Search.Chapter 4: Applying For and Receiving Your Patent.Chapter 5: Maintaining and Defending Your Patent.Part II: Securing Other Intellectual Property.Chapter 6: Trademarks and Trade Secrets.Chapter 7: Stopping Copycats with a Copyright.Chapter 8: Mum’s the Word: Keeping it Confidential.Part III: Developing Your Idea.Chapter 9: Prototyping: Making It Work.Chapter 10: Hiring Helpers and Working with Work-for-Hire Agreements.Chapter 11: Evaluating Your Invention’s Potential.Chapter 12: Looking at the Production Process.Part IV: Commercializing Your Invention.Chapter 13: Developing a Business Plan.Chapter 14: Finding Funding.Chapter 15: Keeping Control with Your Own Business.Chapter 16: Partnering and Manufacturing Arrangements.Chapter 17: Preparing to Take Your Invention to Market.Chapter 18: Marketing Your Product.Chapter 19: Advertising Your Product.Chapter 20: Licensing Your Product.Chapter 21: Negotiating a License.Part V: The Part of Tens.Chapter 22: Ten Key Contacts.Chapter 23: Ten Inventions (and Inventors) That Changed the World.Chapter 24: Ten Inventors to Emulate.Part VI: Appendixes.Appendix A: Sample Agreements.Appendix B: Online Resources.Index.

"The advice within its pages is easy to read, and well worth the ??15.99 cover price." (Eurekamagazine.co.uk, Tuesday 22 May 2008) "[The book is] the only guide you need to help you make the jump from 'thinker' to 'doer.'" (UKBusinessExchange.info, Tuesday 29 April 2008)