Serial Inventor Impact

by | Feb 18, 2016 | Inventions and Inventors

Do inventors develop new ideas as often as serial entrepreneurs?

Business innovation often leads to the launch of start-up companies that take a new idea to market. Louisiana Tech researchers identified a lack of information on the people behind that innovation – inventors. More specifically, researchers sought to identify inventors who produced a particularly high number of new ideas in a report published last month. The study focused on the research and development at five universities:

“A detailed study of the inventors listed on all the U.S. patents issued to five major research universities over a 23-year period highlights the outsized contributions of serial inventors. Particularly striking is how similar these contributions were among the five universities studied. In each case, the frequency of serial inventors is nearly identical, with approximately 10 percent of faculty inventors accounting for 50 percent of the patents at each university.”

A report on the study on Phys.org notes that one key element of these inventors’ success is their ability to organize research teams and secure funding for their projects. He goes on to say that budget cuts at universities could impact future development or result in serial inventors moving to other states:

“Kordal and his team also believe their findings are timely given uncertain budget times. An unintended consequence of cut backs to state support for higher education could be the loss of these top performing researchers to other well-off states that continue to invest in higher education.”

Serial inventors don’t just exist in academic institutions, however, and successful inventors can turn their ideas into marketable products. Stephen Key, co-founder of InventRight, offers this advice to would-be serial inventors: Don’t get too attached to your ideas, understand how to use intellectual property, stick to one industry, and don’t be afraid to fail (among others).

To learn more about protecting your inventions and ideas with intellectual property rights, contact EmergeCounsel

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