
10 Steps to Making Money from Smart Ideas  - nreece
http://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/smartstart/ten_steps_static.htm
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david927
I thought the article was spot on except for two comments:

> Keep track of all your development and protection costs to help you put a
> value on your IP

No. McDonalds doesn't price its cheeseburger based on how much it costs but on
how much a consumer would be willing to spend on it. That's a huge difference.
How much you've worked and spent is meaningless in terms of the end value. The
only question is how much would others value it.

And second, it doesn't clarify enough that inventors almost never make money
on their inventions. The person who brings it to market makes all the money.
Are Bill Gates and Steve Jobs inventors? Exactly.

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TheTarquin
Speaking as someone who just decided to try and see their first software idea
to market, I actually found that particular comment in the article helpful,
though not in the way I think they intended.

So I have an idea for a software. Let's say the awesome happens and, at some
point of time T in the development cycle, someone wants to buy my
company/idea/etc. How much is a fair asking price for my time, energy, ideas,
etc.? Well, a good starting place would be the amount of fiscal and temporal
resources already invested, plus some amount.

Now, I can't speak generally, but tend to be HORRIBLE at estimating hours or
money invested in something after the fact. So tracking development costs
makes sense to me, if for no other reason than it will give me an idea of how
deep I'm into the project if I ever get to the point of negotiating financial
issues with an outside party.

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rhiltd
You must remember the authors are government IP bureaucrats. These are the
people who make IP lawyers look exciting and rational.

IP Australia would NEVER suggest that people actually DO SOMETHING without
spending $100K on legal and consultants fees.

They would know what an innovation was if it bit them on the bum. They just do
not get it.

I have been trying to teach people how to do a startups for nearly 20 years.
(yes, I am old) Richard Hayes RHI

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mixmax
That is so right...

You may be old but you get it :-)

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sutro
My process has only 3 steps:

1: Cut a hole in a box. 2: Put your junk in that box. 3: Make her open the
box.

And that's the way you do it!

~~~
dejb
Made me go find the video.

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murrayh
That site looks like it is aimed at physical products ("model", "manufacture")
rather than software. Physical products are much easier to knock off than
evolving, quality software; so IP protection and the like are probably more
important.

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TheTarquin
I couldn't agree more. I think, in fact, that a great deal of the current
confusion and chaos surrounding software IP issues can be traced to exactly
this important distinction.

"Piracy? That's stealing software." Well, no, not exactly, since no physical
instance is stolen. Physical things can be stolen. There are analogies in the
software world, but they're usually imperfect.

"Let's patent our software widgit!" Again, kind of misses the mark. I mean,
would it make sense for me to say: "Sweet, I'm gonna patent my English
essay!"?

Anyway, I could rant on about this. Just a round about way of saying I think
you're right, murrayh, that the physical/virtual distinction is a critical one
and that it gets overlooked, both here and generally.

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bayareaguy
Many companies use software/business model patents like Saddam used WMDs - as
a way to threaten without actually deploying the skill or resources they don't
have.

Unfortunately it's usually a bad business decision to fight the system head on
so only the worst intimidators ever encounter resistance.

~~~
TheTarquin
Fair point.

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mixmax
It doesn't look like whoever wrote that has ever been involved in a startup.

Following the advice given in the article will give you tons of paperwork, and
lots of stuff to do that isn't important.

Spend your limited resources wisely: build a product.

