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| Foreword | |
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| Introduction | |
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| About This Book | |
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| Conventions Used in This Book | |
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| Foolish Assumptions | |
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| How This Book Is Organized | |
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| Icons Used in This Book | |
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| Where to Go from Here | |
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| Making Your Idea Yours | |
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| The Innovation Process | |
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| Deciding Where to Go with Your Idea | |
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| Protecting Your Idea | |
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| Keeping good records | |
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| Participating in the Disclosure Document Program | |
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| Spinning Through the Product Life Cycle | |
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| Patent Basics | |
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| Finding Out the Functions of a Patent | |
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| Knowing What's Patentable | |
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| Looking at the Types of Patents | |
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| Make yourself useful; get me a utility patent! | |
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| Design patent | |
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| Planting the seeds of invention: The plant patent | |
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| Hiring a Patent Agent or Attorney | |
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| Patent agent versus patent attorney | |
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| Knowing what they can do for you | |
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| Choosing the right attorney or agent for the job | |
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| It's a Small World: International Issues | |
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| Applying for foreign patents | |
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| Foreign applicants for U.S. patents | |
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| Conducting a Patent Search | |
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| Do I Really Need to Do a Patent Search? | |
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| Determining Whether Your Idea Is Really New | |
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| Searching for Existing Patents | |
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| Searching for patents via the Internet | |
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| Searching for international patents | |
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| Getting Professional Help | |
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| Questions to ask | |
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| Knowing the cost | |
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| Using Your Search Results | |
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| Applying For and Receiving Your Patent | |
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| Knowing Who Can Apply for a Patent | |
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| Applying as co-inventors | |
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| Choosing a representative | |
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| Filing for Different Types of Patents | |
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| Paying attention to the process | |
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| Filing a utility patent | |
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| Filing a design patent | |
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| Filing for a plant patent | |
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| Filing for a provisional patent | |
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| Making the Most of a Pending Patent | |
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| Getting Your Patent | |
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| Maintaining and Defending Your Patent | |
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| Keeping Current by Paying Your Fees | |
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| Valuing Your Patent | |
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| Taking a businesslike view | |
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| Assigning your patent | |
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| Licensing your patent | |
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| Defending Your Patent Against Infringement | |
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| Insuring Your Patent | |
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| Offensive patent insurance | |
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| Defensive patent insurance | |
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| Securing Other Intellectual Property | |
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| Trademarks and Trade Secrets | |
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| What Is a Trademark? | |
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| Federal versus State Trademarks | |
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| Using the Trademark and Service Mark Symbols | |
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| Understanding the Basics for Filing a Federal Trademark Application | |
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| Having a basis for your application | |
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| Filing electronically | |
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| Filing via snail mail | |
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| Owning the trademark | |
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| Providing correspondence info for the USPTO | |
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| Drawing your mark | |
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| Listing goods and services | |
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| Including a specimen | |
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| Paying to play--filing fees | |
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| Filing an Intent-to-Use Application | |
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| Trade Secrets--Shhhhhhhh! | |
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| Looking at examples of trade secrets | |
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| Pondering the pros and cons of trade secrets | |
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| Protecting your trade secret | |
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| Stopping Copycats with a Copyright | |
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| What Is a Copyright? | |
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| Who Can Claim Copyright? | |
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| Copyright Protection | |
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| What works are protected? You took the words out of my mouth | |
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| What's not protected by copyright | |
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| Securing copyright protection | |
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| How long does copyright protection last? | |
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| Registering Your Copyright | |
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| Knowing who may file an application | |
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| Applying for an original registration | |
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| Renewing your registration | |
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| Registering unpublished collections | |
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| Considering special deposit requirements | |
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| Effective date of registration | |
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| Correcting and amplifying existing registrations | |
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| Paying registration fees | |
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| Contacting the Copyright Office | |
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| Transferring a Copyright | |
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| Mum's the Word: Keeping it Confidential | |
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| Spilling the Beans about the Basics | |
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| Sharing with the People in Your Life | |
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| Securing dinner-table talk | |
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| Signing on employees | |
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| Zipping your lips at work | |
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| Talking to the big boys | |
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| Running into Someone Who Won't Sign | |
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| Developing Your Idea | |
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| Prototyping: Making It Work | |
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| Understanding the Importance of Prototyping | |
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| Obtaining Your Prototype | |
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| Going through the process yourself | |
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| Hiring a prototype maker to do it for you | |
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| Prototyping with an existing manufacturer | |
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| Protecting Your Ideas During the Prototyping Process | |
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| Cost-Effectively Producing Your Product | |
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| Meeting product safety standards | |
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| Developing design control documents | |
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| Considering graphic design and packaging | |
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| Pricing your product | |
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| Choosing the right manufacturing materials | |
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| Hiring Helpers and Working with Work-for-Hire Agreements | |
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| Hiring Professionals to Turn Your Idea into a Reality | |
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| Picking a prototyper | |
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| Arranging for packaging personnel | |
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| Protecting Your Idea and Your Product | |
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| Working Out Work-For-Hire Agreements | |
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| Evaluating Your Invention's Potential | |
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| Answering Questions about Viability | |
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| Is your idea original? | |
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| How will your invention be produced? | |
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| Will your invention make money? | |
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| Asking for Evaluations | |
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| Hiring a professional evaluator | |
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| Bracing for feedback | |
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| Looking at evaluation techniques | |
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| Cutting into PIES | |
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| Maximizing the Results of Your Evaluation | |
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| Looking at the Production Process | |
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| Focusing on the Process | |
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| Examining product cycling | |
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| Subcontracting | |
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| Making Up the Materials | |
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| Figuring out what you need | |
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| Taking on tooling | |
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| Controlling inventory | |
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| Packaging for profit and protection | |
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| Shipping news | |
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| Delivering the goods | |
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| Storing things away | |
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| Inspecting Facilities | |
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| Finding housing | |
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| Lining up your equipment | |
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| Calculating Costs | |
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| Finding ways to save | |
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| Judging economies of scale | |
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| Working with People | |
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| Checking Quality Control | |
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| Commercializing Your Invention | |
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| Developing a Business Plan | |
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| Realizing that You Need a Business Plan | |
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| Working Up a Business Plan | |
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| What your plan can do for you | |
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| Who should write the plan? | |
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| Breaking Down Your Business Plan | |
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| Making your plan look presentable | |
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| Sketching it out | |
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| Writing an Executive Summary | |
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| Putting your research on the market | |
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| Introducing yourself | |
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| The corporate bigwigs | |
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| The money | |
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| Getting even and getting out | |
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| Stuff tacked on at the end | |
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| Finding Funding | |
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| Determining How Much and For What | |
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| Looking at what you need money for | |
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| Determining how much you need | |
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| Figuring Out the Types of Financing | |
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| Defining the terms | |
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| Rating risk and return | |
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| Seeking Out Sources of Capital | |
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| The most important source--you! | |
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| Getting a little help from your friends | |
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| Going the conventional route with bank loans | |
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| Calling on angels | |
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| Letting employees invest | |
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| Acquiring funds though acquisitions--If you can't beat 'em, acquire 'em! | |
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| Venturing over to venture capitalists | |
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| Obtaining a government loan | |
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| Getting Free Money from Your Uncle Sam | |
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| Locating local grants | |
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| Going to the SBA | |
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| Keeping Control with Your Own Business | |
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| Considering Carefully | |
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| Asking yourself some basic questions | |
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| Evaluating your skills | |
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| Realizing that most small businesses fail | |
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| Deciding to Go for It | |
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| Assessing your skills, education, and experience | |
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| Planning the steps | |
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| Finding a home for your business | |
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| Buying business insurance | |
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| Building a Business Structure | |
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| Going solo with a sole proprietorship | |
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| Partnering up | |
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| Looking at limited liability companies | |
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| Incorporating | |
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| Adhering to Government Regulations | |
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| Business licenses | |
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| Certificate of Occupancy | |
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| Fictitious business name | |
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| Tax information | |
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| Sales tax number | |
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| Employee protection | |
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| Minimum wage | |
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| Doing Business with the Federal Government | |
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| The Prime Contracts Program | |
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| Subcontracting Assistance Program | |
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| Certificate of Competency Program | |
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| Procurement Marketing and Access Network | |
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| Making Use of Contacts and Sources of Assistance | |
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| Partnering and Manufacturing Arrangements | |
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| Paying and Partnering Arrangements | |
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| Contracting out or joining up | |
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| Mergers and acquisitions | |
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| Teaming Up with a Manufacturer | |
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| Locating potential manufacturers | |
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| Assessing plants | |
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| Examining the manufacturer's track record | |
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| Negotiating a contract | |
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| Partnering Abroad | |
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| Matching up with the right foreign partner | |
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| Issues to consider when partnering abroad | |
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| Preparing to Take Your Invention to Market | |
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| Discovering What You Need to Know | |
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| Finding out about your customers | |
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| Keeping up with the competition | |
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| Packaging for appeal and profit | |
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| Pricing your product to sell | |
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| Doing Market Research | |
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| Defining the opportunity or problem | |
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| Setting objectives, budgets, and timetables | |
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| Selecting research types, methods, and techniques | |
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| Designing research instruments | |
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| Organizing and analyzing the data | |
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| Marketing Your Product | |
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| Developing Your Market Strategy | |
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| Mixing it up | |
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| Targeting your market | |
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| Making sales presentations | |
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| Attending trade shows | |
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| Getting your product and customers together | |
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| Steering clear of invention promotion companies | |
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| Evaluating Your Ongoing Progress | |
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| Advertising Your Product | |
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| Exploring Advertising Basics | |
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| Designing Your Advertising Campaign | |
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| Tying into a theme | |
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| Targeting your audience | |
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| Choosing the best media for your message | |
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| Setting objectives and measuring results | |
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| Coming up with a budget | |
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| Supplementing Your Regular Advertising | |
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| Pursuing promotions | |
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| Pushing public relations | |
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| Working up some free publicity | |
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| Looking At a Few Tricks of the Trade | |
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| Licensing Your Product | |
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| Contemplating Licensing | |
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| What are your chances? | |
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| Weighing the pros and cons | |
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| Regarding Licensees | |
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| Locating potential licensees | |
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| Considering potential licensees | |
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| Getting in Touch with Your Potentials | |
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| Gathering the materials you need | |
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| Making your way to making your pitch | |
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| Considering the company's side | |
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| Facing Rejection | |
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| Examining Types of Licensing Agreements | |
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| Being exclusive | |
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| Opening up to nonexclusive agreements | |
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| Taking Care of Foreign Licensing | |
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| Negotiating a License | |
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| Employing the Art of Negotiation | |
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| Submitting to an evaluation | |
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| Prepping for the meeting | |
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| Laying out the agenda | |
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| Regarding your bargaining position | |
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| Negotiating like a pro | |
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| Estimating Your Invention's Value | |
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| Contemplating Compensation | |
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| Getting reimbursed upfront | |
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| Getting bucks no matter what | |
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| Researching royalty rates | |
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| The Part of Tens | |
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| Ten Key Contacts | |
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| Evaluation Services for Your Invention | |
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| Innovative Product Technologies, Inc. | |
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| Wisconsin Innovation Service Center | |
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| The Innovation Institute and the WIN Evaluation Center | |
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| The Federal Trade Commission | |
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| Inventors' Digest Magazine | |
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| The Library of Congress Copyright Office | |
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| National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) | |
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| Small Business Development Center Program | |
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| Toy Industries Association | |
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| United Inventors Association | |
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| The United States Patent and Trademark Office | |
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| Small Business Administration | |
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| Ten Inventions (and Inventors) That Changed the World | |
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| Cottoning On to Eli Whitney | |
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| Meeting Metal Man Henry Bessemer | |
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| Reaping with Cyrus Hall McCormick | |
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| Sterilizing and Louis Pasteur | |
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| Calling Alexander Graham Bell | |
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| Cooling Off with Willis Haviland Carrier | |
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| Flying High with the Wright Brothers | |
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| Assembling Henry Ford | |
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| Animating Walt Disney | |
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| Plugging In to Steve Wozniak | |
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| Ten Inventors to Emulate | |
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| Dr. Forrest M. Bird | |
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| James L. Fergason | |
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| Helen M. Free | |
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| Dr. James Hillier | |
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| Dr. Marcian E. (Ted) Hoff | |
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| William P. Lear | |
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| Edward Lowe | |
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| Dr. Jay Morton | |
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| Dr. Robert H. Rines | |
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| James E. West | |
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| Appendixes | |
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| Sample Agreements | |
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| Online Resources | |
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| USPTO and Related International Links | |
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| Important Links for Copyrights | |
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| Domain Name-Related Links | |
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| Law-Related Links | |
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| Other Important Legal, International, and Organizational Links | |
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| News, Search, Manufacturers, and Law Associations-Related Links | |
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| Additional Government Resources | |
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| Index | |