keep your mouth shut...

Here’s an example of why. A few years ago a friend and I (don’t worry Andy, I won’t mention you) were cutting out a 30cm square hole from the wire perimeter fence of the Big Green Gathering festival in the U.K. (sorry guys...).

We were being as discrete as you can be in the pitch black and stillness of the night whilst making huge ‘piiiiiinnnggg’ sounds as the wire cutters snapped through the strands of steel. Anyway, we got caught mid-snip by a woman and her friend who threatened to call security but we explained that we were only cutting out a temporary barbeque grate to cook our sausages on, and a conversation ensued. (I love festivals!).

We ended up sitting around the camp fire cooking sausages on the piece of perimeter fence, getting pissed and chatting for ages, as you do... Having heard that I was an inventor, one of the women became really excited and started to tell me about her son who had “some really good ideas” she said she was going to spend her life’s saving to develop them and asked me what she should do...

No big deal, but. The thing is to obtain a patent, the idea must not be in the ‘Public Domain’... or to quote the UK Intellectual Property Office:
 
“You must not have made your invention public in any way, anywhere in the world, before you apply for a patent for it."

It's not rocket science and it's quite clear, this really does mean you can’t tell anyone about your idea until you’ve filed for a patent.
So here we go, this woman had asked for my advice and, like a Patent Office representative I explained - very clearly- that she or her son, must not mention the ideas to anyone until a patent is filed or she would risk loosing everything.
 
So get this, (and bear in mind she was preparing to invest her life’s savings in her son’s ideas), despite my very clear hard earned advice, her self-doubt drove her to seek confirmation and so she insisted in explaining her son’s valuable ideas, in great detail - to a pissed random bloke in a field who she wanted to report to security just an hour before!
 
It was ridiculous, this woman had no way of knowing that I was an honourable, trustworthy, really nice, kind, good looking, compassionate, like kids and animals, happy to show affection in public, learnt from past relationships (single-at-the-time-of-writing) kind of guy.
 
Of course I’ve never done anything with the information she told me about, but I could have, I could have even applied for a patent for her son’s ideas myself and in reality, there would be little she could have done about it.
 
The festival story highlights the complete dichotomy I found myself in as time went on. I was desperate to tell people about my idea, my baby, but the more I learnt about how to protect it, the more I realised I couldn’t tell anyone about one of the most exciting things in my life. This is a complete arse, especially when you’re twentysomething.

There are so many things I've learnt from my inventor experiences – the hard way. The things you have to get your head around are not as you might expect!

I wish I’d known someone who could have shared all the things that I am offering here for free! If you want more priceless free advice and hard-earned lessons about what to do with a good idea (and what not to do), please check out the out-takes section (when it's up!).
 
Anyway, so there’ you go... It was 1982, I was 20 and a guitarist in a punk band, I didn’t know any of this stuff yet, all of these hard lessons were ahead of me and would unfold over the next few years.