Ask yourself? Which side of the game do you want to be on? Do you want to be remembered as the executive who failed to recognize the business opportunity staring you in the face? Or do you want to be remembered as the visionary who executed and altered your company forever? The choice is yours.

Managing human capital is fundamental for a company's success. Merged with IP capital, a new realm of Intellectual Capital needs to be carefully considered. Alone, patents and inventors are important. But together, their synergies may be invaluable to a firm. Know which patents matter, which inventors matter, and which inventors play nice together. Whether you are searching to hire a new inventor, wanting to monitor inventor productivity, or want to analyze your inventor networks (relationships among inventors), IP Street simplifies the complex to provide meaningful insights.

Ignorance is not bliss. Before any significant moneys are spent on R&D or Product Development, a basic FTO (freedom to operate) search you be performed to ensure the idea, technology, or product is not infringing the IP rights of another party. IPstreet.com's search tools will help you avoid third-party infringement.

A design patent covers the unique, ornamental, or visible shape or surface ornamentation of an article or object, even if only on a computer screen. Thus if a lamp, a building, a computer case, or a desk has a truly unique shape, its design can be design patented. Even computer screen icons and an arrangement of printing on a piece of paper can be patented. A design must be for an article that is different from an object in its natural state; thus a figure of a man would not be suitable for a design patent but if the man is in an unnatural position, this can be patented. The uniqueness of the shape must be purely ornamental or aesthetic and part of an article. If the design is functional, then only a utility patent is proper, even if it is also aesthetic. A good example is a jet plane with a constricted waist (narrow body) for reducing turbulence at supersonic speeds: Although the novel shape is attractive, its functionality makes it suitable for a utility patent only. A useful way to distinguish between a design and a utility invention is to ask, "Will removing or smoothing out the novel features substantially impair the function of the device?" If so, as in the jet plane with the narrowed body, this proves that the novel features have a significant functional purpose, so a utility patent in indicated. According to David Pressman's book "Patent it Yourself" two useful questions to ask to define design innovations are: (1) Is the novel feature(s) there for structural or functional reasons, or only for the purpose of ornamentation? (2) Does the novel feature make it look better or work better? (The utilitarian function always prevails.) If the state of the arts is such that the general nature of the feature and its function is old, but the feature has a novel shape that is an aesthetic improvement, then only a design patent will be proper. The design patent application must consist primarily of drawings, along with formal paperwork and a filing fee. Design patents last 14 years from the date of issuance.

Have an idea for an invention or want to know how much your invention is worth? IPstreet.com is a great place to begin. Our tools and resources will help enable you to better understand the world of innovation and the possibilities available to you. IPStreet.com's search tools will help you better understand patent analytics, patent searches and patent duration, as well as much more.