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New Social Networking Website Launched for Intellectual Property (IP) Protection

Do you have any idea? Would you like to patent, copyright or trademark it?

A new web site, myHeureka.com, provides a social network approach to intellectual property (IP) rights. myHeureka is a site for common man/woman and small corporations looking for an free alternative for IP protection.

Historically, the only protection offered to secure your IP rights is by applying for a patent, copyright or trademark through the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) in your country. Unfortunately the process to acquire this is so bloated that it is almost impossible for a common man/woman to pursue it. You can avail the services of a Patent Attorney but their fee is exorbitant. Filing a patent costs around $15,000-$35,000 USD. To add to this pain, it takes 5-10 years (depending on your luck) to secure your IP. PTO offices across the globe cannot cope up with the pace of innovation in this digital age.

Users can create an account and log their ideas in a simple process on myHeureka. The moment an idea is logged on the site, the ideas are automatically protected. All ideas are protected from the date & time they are logged on the site. Users cannot edit existing ideas but they can create a new idea by referring to an existing idea i.e. if it an extension or amendment to an existing idea either their own or others' idea.

Corporations spend a great deal of time and money to secure their intellectual property. Due to cost of securing a patent, corporations only pick a handful of ideas. Corporations running tight on budget cannot secure their IP at all. In essence, this puts start-ups and small corporations at a disadvantage as compared to larger corporations with deeper pockets. myHeureka levels the playing field for all corporations. Now corporations small & large can log all their ideas here to secure their intellectual property without any cost to them.

All ideas are viewable by users of the site. Users can rate or comment on others' ideas and view ratings or comments on their ideas. Users can also check who has viewed their idea. Each idea is associated with metrics like number of users that liked it, number of users that did not like it, number of unique viewers, total number of views, number of comments, etc. Users can check the list of users that viewed the idea, number of times the idea was visited by each user and see all the comments. Users can also browse or search for ideas. Search results can be sorted on ratings, views, alphabetical or time stamp.

Inventors (idea owner) can pitch their ideas to investors (Angels and Venture Capitals) for funding by providing a very detailed plan for their startup. If the startup plan is based on lot of positive reviews from the user community on an idea, the user can refer that idea in their pitch to strengthen their case. Start-up ideas are visible only to angels, venture capitals, and lawyers – additional validation step for users with these rights to confirm their identity.

In the past, entrepreneurs seeking funding for their start-up ideas approached various angels and venture capitals using a variety of methods. There is so much duplication of work with no insights into the status of their application. myHeureka gives entrepreneurs the ability to pitch their idea in one single place and creates a medium for investors to find all such ideas in one single place. Entrepreneurs can interact with the investors through this site to address any questions. Similar to the idea, each start up plan is associated with metrics like number of investors that liked it (or didn't), number of investor viewers, number of investor views, number of investor comments, etc.

myHeureka also offers a lot to investor community. In the past, investors (Angels/VCs) relied on a handful of people within the company to select their ideas. But using this site, investors can validate their findings with that of the social web (if an idea is associated with the start up plan) and their own investor community using various metrics on the likelihood of success/failure of the idea. Investors can monitor ideas of their interest to see responses from the rest of their community before funding it.

Overall, myHeureka is a one stop site for inventors, entrepreneurs, and investors. And, best this entire site is free for all.


Published December 4, 2010

 


     
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