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Musique
Savante™ |
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February
2009 |
News
Issue No. 4 |
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In This Issue · Hi from
Musique Savante · Inventing a
Music Game: Chap. 4 · One More
Thing · Next Issue Contact Us Phone: Email: info@musiquesavante.com We Want To Hear From You! Share a funny student story with us. We may even print it for others to
read. Click on link below to
submit your anecdote.
Did you miss a previous newsletter? Click here to view |
Hi
from Musique Savante! Winter
in the I’m
willing to bet that all teachers see this phenomenon in our students. Two steps forward, one step back, two
steps forward, etc. It’s a
joy and an honor to see the creative methods you all use in the day-to-day
tasks of music education! For
those of you who create music games, Issue no. 3 of the Musique Savante
Newsletter discussed the look of the games. Issue no. 4 touches on some of the
costs involved in protecting them. One More
Thing: Thanks
to Alice Edwards of Inventing a Music Game: or, Are You Crazy? Chapter 4: It Costs How Much??? Every successful inventor has said the same thing to me:
it takes twice as long and three times as much money than you ever thought it
would to take a product from conception to market. I think that’s a low figure,
especially if your game idea qualifies for a patent. In order to figure that out, there are
some things you can do: a) Buy
Maurice Kanbar’s easy-read called Secrets from an Inventor’s
Notebook. He’ll
introduce you to the language of inventing: prototypes, patents, copyrights,
trademarks, licenses, vendors, wholesale, retail, target market, business
plans, marketing plans, confidentiality agreements, etc. b) Ask
if your library has classes called “Patent Quest” or something
like that. It’s free and shows
you how to conduct a patent search to see if your product has already been
patented. Your Inventor’s
Council may have a patent attorney associated with it who might give you one
free consultation concerning the patentability of your product. If these meetings are promising, think
about paying for a professional patent search by said attorney. c) This
is not cheap. Expect to spend
between $5,000 and $20,000 for a patent.
Also, I’m told by no less than 3 sources that the US Patent
Office almost always rejects the first application, forcing you and your
attorney to fine-tune it.
Resubmitting it will cost about $500 for your attorney’s fee. d) One
way to see if there’s a market for your invention without sacrificing
the protection of your idea is to obtain a provisional patent. For about $2500, this type of
protection gives you one year to sell your game or look for a company to sell
it for you. At the end of the
year you can decide whether to spend the full fee for a patent (sorry, you
can’t deduct the $2500 you’ve already spent on the provisional
one) or to abandon the idea. e) Even
if your invention is not patentable, you may be able to have copyright or
trademark protection. The US
Patent and Trademark Office website explains in detail the differences between
the two, and whether it’s necessary to pay any fees. For example, no fee is required to put
the ™ symbol on your company name or logo, but you will have to pay an
attorney to do the required research and paperwork to get the protection of a
registered trademark, which appears as ®. Next Issue In
the next quarterly installment of the News will be Chapter
5: Murder by red tape, which touches on taxes, ownership
or corporations, and liability. As always, if you have a humorous story about your students and
“Toss-a-Tune,” or any other funny comment or situation involving
your music students, send it to me at info@musiquesavante.com
and I might be able to include it in future newsletters. Until then, I wish you success with Spring activities. Susan Kight, M.Mus.Ed. ©Musique Savante, February 2009 |
