Inventor Square offers independent inventors and just ordinary folk in our neighborhoods solving daily problems a Marketplace where they can turn ideas in to cash. This inventor's showcase helps you learn more about your market, your value, and how you can improve your offerings. It takes practice to be an American inventor and frontline market research is your best feedback.

Mary Kaye Denning, Founder Garage Inventor Live Opening day at the NASA Glenn Research Center, Building 500 Auditorium, Cleveland, OH August 12, 2008. Photographer, Barney Taxel.

Learning to fail quickly.

In the innovation industry there are much worse fates than, failing quickly. As weird as that may sound to you now; failing quickly, can be great feedback. This kind of research empowers you. It allows you to move on to the new-and-next innovation, probably a more mature idea/solution that will make you money.

Limping along without measureable commercial success kidnaps your time and precious resources. Back in the sixties, NASA issued a mission objective: "Fail Quickly".  This objective insight placed the United States space program in the position of leadership and it will help you too.

Garage Inventors, you are: 

	Performing your economic role by creating one+1 jobs.
	Self-organizing with supply chain support.
	Testing new markets.
	Improving your skills as an inventor.
	Increasing your output of marketable solutions.
	Thinking green, lean, and professional.

Use Inventor Square as your marketing tool to build and develop your reputation as an Inventor and announce your perspective.

Inventor Square works best for:

	Designs that do not meet the novelty requirement established by the US Patent and Trademark Office;
	Designs which are patent-pending and are ready to establishing a market or market on a larger scale;
	Designs that have been granted a patent but lack the necessary relationships (capital, marketing, manufacturing etc.) needed to fast-track the commercialization timeline.

Marketing your solutions

Selling is a process that requires a dedicated effort, and it must be presented on a consistent basis. Traditionally, inventors had three customers. Now with the opening of Inventor Square, you can now become an inventor without having to turn into an entrepreneur or businessman to get your ideas to market.

When you have your own showroom, you will get the opportunity to meet entrepreneurs who will want to build a business around your invention, like a movie producer builds his movie around a novel.

Or, maybe your direct sales will be all you need to absorb your production. It is also possible that you'll meet Manufacturers ready to invest in your design and who are willing to contribute their know-how by helping, you engineer your invention so you can distribute on a larger scale.

There are many ways to distribute your invention but these commerical opportunities can come on your radar only when your potential buyer can find you.

	end-user
	manufacturer
	marketing company
	your own showroom at INVENTOR SQUARE

The fact that you're an unknown is a factor.

The process of commercialization (the series of processes that turn ideas into cash) can take several paths to market.  But if you are like most independent inventors, without a track record of successfully introducing new products before, or a keystone calculator of your market value any and all suggestions here seem unrealistic and have no meaning.

This reality makes it hard to strike a contract with a manufacturer or a distributor. Bluntly, they perceive unknowns as avoidable risk no matter how smart you are, or how likely your invention would work.

Further down the supply chain, even exceptional retailers, once excited about taking on new designers, will pass. They no longer have the open-to-buy resources, and in most cases, the family-owned management structure that allowed them to nurture up-and-coming talent like you. They can ill-afford to make a mistake today and "one-hit wonders" are expensive.

Even when they love your idea, know it has merit, what can they do? It is just too risky, and too costly, to do business with you. You're an unknown! And what product(s) will follow, they ask? Distribution requires maintenance, new introductions on a consistent basis.  America is hooked on choice.

We hope you will choose to exhibit your work at Inventor Square. But; before you make that choice, and if you intend to seek a patent for your invention, we ask that you know and understand the requirements of intellectual property patent law as it relates to your invention before disclosing your idea here or anywhere! Certain actions you take early on affect the value of your property rights. It is your responsibility, and yours alone, to be informed and to comply with intellectual property law. For more information, please consult your attorney or contact the United States Patent and Trademark Office Inventors Resources before posting your inventions here for regulations that apply.  www.uspto.gov/web/offices/com/iip/index.htm

Inventors, not every idea is worth a million dollars!

The market, defined by you, and the one defined by buyers can be worlds apart.

On the open market, the marketability of your invention, is defined by how many buyers scoop it up. Supply and Demand; it is the demand that dictates whether or not your invention is worth future investment. 

Stay attentive here. Sometimes the demand will not be there. Keep in mind, timing affects the future applications and if the "fashion" is not now, it doesn't necessarily mean it will not work three years from now. 

Remember; good inventors are visionaries. You will be ahead of your time. As a rule of thumb, it takes three to five years to commericalize a product so pace yourself.

Your goal at Inventor Square is to give you, the developing inventor, a chance to get more ideas flowing. By helping you to become a better inventor we are certain you will provide American manufacturing more production-ready products - demand, process, and distribution - doing us all a great service.

Towards this end, Inventor Square is the place you can develop and build your market.

With careful attention and good management, you can:

	Create buzz around you.
	Cultivate relationships with process experts.
	Get real time feedback from other inventors.

This could be you one day.

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