Introduction

Abstract

Most persons have at some time in their lives invented something — perhaps a gadget for making some task easier or a method for increasing the economy of an everyday operation. Aside from a certain degree of personal satisfaction, the great majority of these inventions have never yielded their creators any amount of real return. In many instances, the fault has been with the inventor himself, who made little or no effort beyond writing down the bright idea. In a significant number of cases, however, the problem has arisen from a general lack of knowledge of what to do about a promising idea. The individual who works full time in a non-technical job usually has no guidance for proceeding in a logical, professional way towards effective development and utilization of his invention.