Inventing for Dummies

Pam has used her considerable experience well in writing this book. I've recommended her as a consultant for several years and it's a pleasure to see how much she's been able to pack into the book. As both an inventor and a consultant, I'm confident that every inventor can learn something they didn't know from Pam. Blan McBride

The book offers a good explanation to the tyro of what it takes to protect your invention. The book is not really about inventing, per se. Despite what the title says. A careful read of the contents reveals relatively little discussion about the raw inventing process. That is, how does one come up with an original idea that can be patentable? It may well be that such a question has no answer. Rather, the book's contribution is to show the reader that, if you make something that you think is worth patenting, what are the necessary steps to do so. It explains how you can protect your invention from others. It focuses on steps that can be specifically described to you, and then performed by you. Like how to file a Provisional Patent Application. And how you can now do this electronically. (Which wasn't always the case.) While some of these steps are unique to the United States, in general they apply in most countries. There is also a brief discussion about copyright issues in the book. But it is tangential to the main topic.