The Biggest Hurdle with Inventors

Inventors often are concerned that someone is going to steal their idea and run with it. That someone is generally a highly funded and well-organized group of suit wearing guys from either New York or Silicon Valley. It may seem like a paranoid thought that someone would steal an idea and then crush the inventor with it but it is more common than we may think. Don’t believe it. Ask the Winkelvoss’s about what their experience was working with someone who was able to execute an idea better for whatever reason.

The problem is that many inventors instead of sharing the idea for fear of being ripped off will sit on the idea and the market it never exposed to what could have been. The patent and trademark office is supposed to assist inventors by creating the patent process but too many times the patent is challenged and the inventor is still ignored by unscrupulous companies that refuse to respect the inventor and instead utilize the invention without compensation.

This creates and environment that does not encourage invention because there is little protection for the inventor. Without acknowledging the inventor there is little motivation to keep inventing and this stifles growth.

We realize that this is the opposite of the argument that is made by the user of the invention who promotes the idea that patents block the inventors but we believe that few things could be further from the truth. Without the protection of patents and trademarks the inventor would be better off becoming a song writer or a door to door salesperson. This would not create more useful technology and would not promote people from toiling to create something from nothing through their own efforts, investment of time, money, blood sweat and tears.

As of 2012 Apple held over 4,600 patents and Microsoft held 19,800 or Samsung with 47,855 patents in their portfolio? Yet many of these tech giants will argue that the patent process is a hindrance to inventors when it suits their purposes.

Inventors cannot be afraid to invent and to show the world their inventions or the innovations will surely dry up as people lose their incentive to create.