*****************************************************************
*****************************************************************

THE ONLINE INVENTOR

(C) 1998 Market Launchers, Inc. -- October, 1998

http://www.marketlaunchers.com

Editor:  Paul Niemann

E-mail: [email protected]

*****************************************************************
*****************************************************************

 In this issue: (Due to the length of this issue, we’re breaking it up into 2 parts.)

Article #1: "An inventor’s guide to the Internet -- Part 1," by Paul Niemann

Article #2: "What manufacturers look for in new products:" An interview with a manufacturer who licenses products from outside inventors. (Next month)

Article #3: "Prototyping for inventors -- Part 1," by Dennis Dohogne of the Mid-America Manufacturing Technology Center. (Next month)

************************************************************

Article #1: "An inventor’s guide to the Internet -- Part 1"

As you’ve probably found out by now, the Internet is filled with hundreds of invention-related web sites. In order to help you sort through some of them, we’ve put together a partial list consisting of 4 types of web sites:

  1. Web sites that consist primarily of helpful information for the inventor
  2. Web sites of companies that help inventors commercialize their products
  3. Inventor organizations’ web sites
  4. Links to foreign patent offices (to see how it’s done in other countries)

Now we’ll take a closer look at each of these types. Be sure to Bookmark those sites that you want to come back to at a later date. Some of the sites require that you type in the full http://www while others allow you to omit the www part. Finally, we did not knowingly list any of the so-called "invention-marketing firms" that have been known to scam inventors. We listed only companies or organizations that we believe to be reputable. However, you should still investigate any company that you consider doing business with, prior to doing business with them.

Web sites that consist primarily of helpful information for inventors:

 Web sites of companies that help inventors commercialize their products:

Inventor organizations’ web sites: There are over 110 of these groups in the U.S.; however, we only list the ones here that have their own web sites. For a complete listing, please go to: www.inventorsdigest.com/connect/orgs.html

Links to foreign patent offices:

Approximately 5% of our readers are from outside the United States, so we’ve listed web addresses for some of the patent offices in other countries.

Austria:             http://at.dips.org.patent.bmwa.gv.at
Belgium:             http://be.dips.org
Denmark:             http://dips.dkpto.dk
Finland:             http://espacenet.prh.fi
Italy:               http://it.dips.org
Monaco:              http://mc.dips.org
Portugal:            http://www.dips.inpi.pt
Spain:               http://www.dips.oepm.es
Switzerland:        http://www.dips.ch
United Kingdom:     http://dips.patent.gov.uk

************************************************************

Article #2: "What manufacturers look for in new products:" An interview with a manufacturer who licenses products from outside inventors. (Next month)

Article #3: "Prototyping for inventors -- Part 1" (Next month)

************************************************************
************************************************************

Copyright 1998
Market Launchers, Inc.
All Rights Reserved

************************************************************
************************************************************

Click here to read the September 1998 issue.