Startup Inventor's Handbook

A startup is a company with a technical focus. Therefore, the founder of a startup will first familiarize himself with the existing technology and study its characteristics, especially its disadvantages, in detail. In the next step,the founder will identify a technical task that overcomes the disadvantages of the current technology. The founder must also conduct a business evaluation to determine whether solving this task will lead to a product for a sufficiently large market. After that, the creative process of developing an invention begins. The discovered technical idea must be examined to ensure it can be used without infringing on third-party patents and whether it can be protected by its own patent. Furthermore, the startup founder should consider specialized embodiments that are suitable for particular applications. These embodiments can open up additional markets and enrich the own patent application. This can facilitate a faster patent grant. Registering a trademark is also recommended for the startup founder. The book explains each of these steps in detail. The main focus of the technical book is the development of a technical idea based on existing technologies and its protection through patent, trademark, and design law.

Dr. Thomas Heinz Meitinger is a German and European patent attorney. After studying electrical engineering in Karlsruhe, he initially worked as a development engineer. Later positions included roles as production manager and technical director in medium-sized companies. Dr. Meitinger regularly publishes scientific articles and writes technical books on intellectual property law and technical subjects. He also delivers lectures on patent, trademark, and design law. Dr. Meitinger holds the degrees Dipl.-Ing. (Univ.) and Dipl.-Wirtsch.-Ing. (FH). In addition, he has earned the following master’s degrees: LL.M., LL.M., MBA, MBA, M.A., and M.Sc. 

The translation was done with the help of artificial intelligence. A subsequent human revision was done primarily in terms of content.