Handbook for inventors on the web

Mechanical Engineering, Nov 1999 by O'Leary, Jay

The website for the Lemelson-- MIT Prize Program offers a free on-line handbook designed to address the independent inventor's and aspiring entrepreneur's most frequently asked questions.

The Handbook for Inventors can be found at http://web.mit.edu/invent/www/handbook/index.html. Its 11 chapters discuss the following questions: What Is Intellectual Property? What Can Be Patented? Is My Idea Patentable? How Do I Conduct a Patent Search? Is My Invention Worth Patenting? How Do I Apply for a Patent? How Do I Prove the Idea Is Mine? What Are Some Options to Commercialize My Patent? How Do I License My Invention? What Are Some Guidelines in Developing a Business Plan? How Do I Raise Capital?

Inventor Jerome H. Lemelson and his wife Dorothy established the prize program at MIT's Sloan School of Management in 1994. The inventor died in 1997. His more than 500 patents cover essential parts of dozens of products in common use today, including the VCR, camcorder, Walkman, cordless phone, fax machine, data and word processing systems, and industrial robots. Each year the Lemelson-MIT Prize of $500,000 is awarded to an outstanding American inventor. JAY O'LEARY