19. Invention, intellectual property and income¶
The Lecture¶
From what I learned in the lecture yesterday, I learned that patents are not all that good for a company and or an invention. They aren’t all what they’re made out to be. I’ve had experience with intellectual property before and I’m fairly certain that most of my generation has heard the term ‘Fair Use’ thrown around by big youtubers.
Plans for my invention¶
What I plan to do to protect my invention is first get a utility patent. As Neil said earlier in the lecture, a utility patent will securely protect my concept and my machine, but it doesn’t exactly protect. It gives me access to the court system, but I have to readily looked for anything that could possibly be copying my product. What I need to do is get a license on my product. I already intend to make three different versions of my final project after FabAcademy, so I would need a license that would either cover all three or get three different licenses for all of them.
How to commercialize¶
In the future, I would like to have three different designs as stated earlier:
- one for volleyball (power, precision)
- one for fencing (speed, precision)
- one for lacrosse (power, precision)
All of these have their own seperate ways of performing all these tasks though they seem similar in their goals, but have very different applications. For example, serving a volleyball and scoring a goal in lacrosse are two very different events with different spectrums.
For volleyball:
I’ll work on programming a system of hitting straight ahead with lots of power and precision. (Enough power so it goes over the net). (10 ft. x 4 ft.)
For fencing:
I’ll work on programming a system that allows me to improve the speed at which a foil hits the target in a smaller space than the volleyball. (1.5 ft. x 1.5 ft.)
For lacrosse:
I’ll work on programming a system that allows me to improve the power and accuracy at which someone throws a lacrosse ball at a goal. When trying to get a goal in lacrosse, its better to aim for the corners rather than at the goalie. 4 corners would be the green spots (like the volleyball mat) and the rest would be inaccurate.
There are many different applications I can use my project for. Thankfully, my school will also allow me to apply for a patent during my Compass project throughout school where I can hone this project to its full potential.
True Commercialization¶
Materials:
I will definetly need to invest in some cheaper copper, but I will also need to invest in a cheaper foam, or atleast get them both at a more cost effiecient price.
Electronics:
I know I will definetly have to mass produce step-response boards in the future, so I will probably commission a factory in China to make the boards for me so I don’t have to mill and solder them individually.
Building:
Right now, I’m building all the mats by hand, but soon enough I’ll be building them by machine. If I do anything, I think I’ll have to set up some sort of conveyor type system. Something that will press the mat together in all five layers with the boards with it.
Upgrades:
I think I’ll connect my volleyball mat to Bluetooth some day and make a better user interface that makes it easier to track how a player is doing. All you would have to do is pair with the mat during the time you use it and it would save all your serves. I hope to do this in the future.