How To Invent: My 30 Year Innovation Process.

Patenting & Protecting Your Idea

It's Not Just About Patents

Creativity and innovation are not just about getting a patent.
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In my experience, some of the best ideas have never been protected at all.
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As a design engineer, creativity is a prerequisite—it’s not something you switch on for brainstorming sessions and off again at 5pm.

It’s buried in the details: how a product or mechanism is conceived, how it elegantly goes together, and how it quietly avoids doing unnecessary things.
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It might be using two parts instead of four (always a good day), a novel use of materials, or a small mechanical insight that makes everything simpler, cheaper, or more reliable—often and usually the case without anyone ever noticing.

And, in engineering, that’s usually the point. The best solutions are a bit like a good newsreader: if people notice them, something has probably gone wrong.
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In many cases these ideas remain hidden and are only discovered when a competitor strips down your product and analyses it while developing theirs—something every company does, usually while claiming they absolutely don’t.

Hidden In Plain Sight

Many companies also choose not to patent everything, for a variety of reasons. Patents are expensive, budgets are finite, and organisations often focus on protecting their core underlying technologies rather than every potentially patentable idea built on top of them.

Sometimes a company simply decides it would rather not tell the world how something is done.
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After all, once a patent is published, it’s available for anyone to read—and potentially work around. You’re essentially explaining your clever idea in public and hoping your competitors are polite enough not to take notes.
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This approach is more common than people realise. It’s not always a good idea to explain to your competitors exactly how you achieved something.

Yes, there’s a risk it could be discovered, but many ideas are so subtle they can remain hidden in plain sight for decades—especially manufacturing techniques, where the magic often lives in the process rather than the product.
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So being inventive isn’t about how many patents you have. Most of my creative ideas—and probably most people’s—have never been patented. ‍‍

I Though You Looked!

That said, patents still matter. During product development it’s essential to carry out patent clearance checks to ensure you haven’t inadvertently copied an existing patent.

Tooling up, launching production, and then receiving a polite-but-terrifying infringement letter is not a great milestone to celebrate.
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Some companies take this risk anyway, assuming they can fight a claim or argue that a patent is invalid. This can work, but it’s a high-stakes strategy and rarely a relaxing one. Interestingly, patent cross-licensing is also common, where competitors agree to use each other’s patents—often a case of mutually assured paperwork.
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Beyond patents, designs can also be protected through design registrations, and there are several other forms of intellectual property protection available. IP is a toolbox, not a single hammer.
Ultimately, an idea is the foundation of everything. While not every idea should—or can—be patented, it’s still wise to understand how best to protect what you create.

Nothing New Under The Sun

"The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.” Ecclesiastes 1:9
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If you think you’ve had a genuinely new idea, there’s a chance something similar already exists.

So, before you sink your savings, time, and energy into development, it’s worth doing at least a preliminary patent search. Google Patents is a practical place to start. It’s not a guarantee that no patent exists, but it’s far better than going in blind.
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And if you do find an existing patent, all is not lost. Prior art can clarify what’s already been tried and, just as importantly, what hasn’t.

Many successful products come from working around existing ideas — improving them, simplifying them, applying them in a new way, or using the concept without infringing the claims.

Constraints don’t end creativity; they focus it.

Team Work & Collaboration

The Laundry rain cover also showed me how, although one person may come up with the initial idea, in most cases—if not all—others you work with will contribute input and add ideas to improve on the original.

So, it’s extremely rare nowadays, especially in companies where there is a lot of existing expertise and IP, for one person to be the sole inventor on a patent.

It really is a process of teamwork and collaboration. For example, if I had tried to patent the laundry cover idea (I’m sure it has been done, though), my mum and dad would both be included as co-inventors.

My mum suggested it needed a proper cover, and my Dad helped with material selection, and offered other ideas!

But if I were to try and patent it, it’s important not to rush around telling everyone about the idea. And if you do need to show it to people, always make sure they sign NDAs first.

Can You Protect It?

As I was pretty sure I wanted to engineering and invent for a living, I decided to learn about patents.

After wallpapering a room, to me the light switches stuck out like sore thumbs.

So I asked my parents why not cover them too—Dad said the paper would get grubby and peel off.

So I fashioned a cover from acetate sheet, folding it into a box that fit the switch plate. I lined it with matching wallpaper, cutting a slot for the toggle. It made the switch blend in

I didn't particularly love ths idea but as a low-stakes exercise (provisional patents cost just £1 back then), I ordered the Inventor’s Kit from the UK Patent Office, followed the guide, and typed up an application.

It definetly wasn’t airtight, but I filed it anyway.

So, Armed with a Provisonal Patent Application I wrote to a few companies.

To my surprise, Mangers and Coloroll replied—both politely declined for various reasons, which I expected to be honest.

Just Enough To Be Dangerous

This experience taught me that it helps to know at least a little about a field before trying to make a meaningful contribution.

Fresh eyes can absolutely spot things experts miss — but there’s a subtle balance to strike.
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I’ve noticed that as people become more expert, they’re often less willing to try new ideas. Experience makes you subconsciously anticipate problems, which can cause promising ideas to be dismissed too early.
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That said, some basic knowledge is essential — enough to be “dangerous,” as the saying goes.
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For example, I knew nothing about interior design and its deliberate use of contrast. Designers will sometimes leave elements like light switches clearly visible as accents, adding visual interest and preventing a room from feeling flat.

Without that insight, I thought I’d identified a problem — when in fact, professionals saw it as a feature.
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The idea itself wasn’t revolutionary, or even particularly good, but the process taught me a great deal about patents — especially the importance of when and how widely you disclose an idea.
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One lesson is non-negotiable: don’t rush around telling people about an idea before it’s protected.
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It’s also worth remembering that IP isn’t limited to novel mechanisms. In some cases, a design registration may be more appropriate, as it can protect appearance as well as function.

Use our PATENT STRATEGY TOOL To map your protection path, including costs and timelines in your region