When business people think about of protecting their ideas first they think about a patent. According to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office patent is a grant of “monopoly for a limited period of time on the use and development of an invention”. To obtain a patent it is necessary to file an application with an explanation why the invention is original, with detailed description of the invention and its aspects, with all drawings, statements and filing fee. But besides this technical issue there are so many things for business people to consider.

Who will provide with all the information that business will need to develop every idea to it logical conclusion including the ways in which ideas can be made, manufactured and marketed? How to protect an idea in such way, so that, no one can make a substantial improvement on it and steal the basic concept and design? How to use all the laws, methods and techniques that are available to all creative people to establish legal protection of an idea under the “First to Invent” provision of U.S. patent law. What about a special advertising copy that will communicate ideas to the right executives at the right companies? Finally, how to find and identify an exact market?

I recently ran across a non-profit which provides all these services to independent inventors comparing patent attorney, invention marketing firms and themselves. The noticeable fact that 90% of services provided is a marketing effort. In my opinion it is a huge help and I bet that’s what independent inventors need.

So here is the deal. To get a help in protection and marketing of inventions watch this informational video of the founder of the Inventor’s Assistance League (IAL), Ted De Boer, who tells about his organization that he started in the 60’s. IAL teaches inventors about a technique known as “pre-patent protection” so an inventor can discuss an idea to determine if it has market value. Thereby saving the expense of a patent until the time is right.

I started a new business. I am continuously amazed at how most problems encountered in starting a new business arise from something that should have been taken care of on day one. The thinking process is not an easy thing to do and the irony of it is that creativity is obvious to everyone except those involved.

It has the good sense to know something about your customer and market before launching a product, a service or a company. This is a good point to remind you of the basics of creative process and also provides encouragement for those business people who may be do not know how to start thinking creatively.

I like to learn from the big guys’ experience. One of them is my favorite company, IDEO Inc. It builds and implements a unique interaction design project, called the “five stage program”, that allows to achieve spectacular results. In the center of the program are three inseparable components: prototyping, designer “wars”, and the needs of the user.

The main goal of prototyping is to test how a new product looks, how it functions, how the look responds to function, and how the function responds to look. The main goal of the designer “wars” is to test the best communication between form and function. Finally, the needs of the user are in a base of the “user-centered methodology” which has a goal “to create attractive products that are also highly usable and offer desirable functionality. Everything focused to the wants, needs and desires of the end user.

The five stage program begins with understanding. Since the final product is not yet known to the IDEO team and interaction design is not known to the client, ideally, this phase establishes a common language between the client and IDEO. During this stage, the team works on formulating the goal and gathers information about competitive products, the client’s proprietary technology, and the client’s own understanding of the advantages and disadvantages they bring to the table. Additional reference material is gathered and reviewed. The client’s marketing and focus group data is consulted.

The next stage calls for the informal observation of key users who are invaluable to IDEO’s team to understand customer needs. These observations differ from focus groups in that people are observed within their familiar surroundings, doing what they normally do. The people and tasks observed are carefully selected to best cover the space of the design problem. Observations are recorded using still photography and/or videotape.

In this phase frequently, the technique of creating characters and scenarios is used. Characters representing potential users of the product under design are identified and described. Each is given a name and identifying characteristics. A usage scenario is constructed for each character, portraying and predicting how the end product is used, the context in which it is used, and the functionality it provides. These scenarios are often are used in brainstorming.

Evaluation is the next stage, which deals with the execution of the summarized results of the previous stage, on paper. Once it is done, designers can get an illustration of the invention and test it on a real user again. The boundary between this phase and the previous one is often blurred, and designs typically pass through several iterations of visualization and evaluation before a design is finalized. The end result is often a synthesis of the designers’ intuitions and feedback from users’ evaluations.

The final stage is usually formulated during the first stage, and consists of the form of tangible media to provide the design to the client. The end product can be conveyed through a written document, a software simulation and/or videotape.

Well, I adopt that for my own use by following scheme: Identity-Vision-Intent-Insight-Engineering-Building-Using. The universal purpose of the creative process is to investigate, discover and discern the business idea connections and principles of self-organization of the business. Is that limited to some specific type of business people or business? I don’t think so.