Low-cost way to prepare an Inventor’s Notebook
A college “composition” notebook is a simple and inexpensive way to create an inventor’s notebook. Because of its stitched binding, you can’t (easily) remove the pages or alter the page order. I recommend simply numbering all of the pages in consecutive order prior to using it.
As you write your ideas / inventions into the inventor’s notebook, you’ll need to have the pages witnessed. Yes, it is tedious. But it is the proper procedure. You’ll need to write a line on each page that says something like “I have read and understood the purpose of this invention” which would then be followed by the word “WITNESS:” which would then followed by your witness’ printed name, signature, and date. Your witness should preferably not be your spouse or children or anyone who could somehow profit from the success of your invention.
And all of the above should be done in ink, not pencil.
Amazing website and awesome information. Thanks for this. I had a question on keeping a log…
Would email be an acceptable route to logging? Rather than keeping a handwritten notebook, I’ve started emailing my daily log (drawing and notes) to myself (at a second account) and to my wife. I figure records exist on the both the outgoing mail server of my Gmail account and both my Hotmail account inbox and my wife’s Gmail inbox. I just “reply all” to the last email I receive, keeping all my notes in a single string so they are all time stamped and kept neatly in one email. What do you think? I work in an office full of lawyers and they always tell me to keep my business emails as they can be used as evidence in court.
Hi Mike.
This is a terrific question. Thank you for posting it.
I have just launched a new Web site — http://www.HowToPatent.pro — that encompasses all of the material on this site, plus will be my platform for information regarding a number of patent- and invention-related topics (such as invention marketing — which has been a very popular question). If I could ask a big favor for you to do a “copy ‘n’ paste” and post your question at http://www.HowToPatent.pro, that would be greatly appreciated. I will then respond to your question at the new Web site. Thank you, again!
– Eric