You’ve done your homework, you want full control, and you are committed to taking your invention forward.
With our inventing services, the financial investment is your responsibility. and you maintain 100% control of everything from product development to commercialization.
Licensing is the easiest path to profit: get paid while others turn your idea into a product and manage the day-to-day grind.
With licensing, someone else is the invests in your idea and maintains control. Our Brutally Honest Review is a smart and honest way to start your licensing journey.
Our extensive library of invention resources has been developed over more than 20 years to help inventors make great decisions.
Browse our Resource Library for Inventors and build your knowledge about everything from NDA's & confidentiality agreements to patents, licensing, manufacturing and more.
Products created and commercialized by Invention City and its partners have generated over $500,000,000 in retail sales and tens of millions in royalty income. We are actively looking to license new inventions in all categories and all stages of development. When we say "yes" we offer to do it all and pay for everything so that you risk nothing more - we take responsibility for patents, prototypes, engineering, design and marketing, to turn your new invention idea into a manufactured product with a real opportunity for market success. The first step to working with us is our Brutally Honest Review. Click to see the video and read our fine print in bold.
Starting as garage inventors we've had over 25 years of experience creating, developing, licensing and selling inventions to Fortune 100 corporations and start-up companies. This gives us deep first hand knowledge of prior art research, market evaluation, building prototypes, engineering for manufacturing, industrial design, writing and filing US and international patents and trademarks, defending patents and trademarks in the US and internationally, negotiating licensing agreements, managing licensing relationships, sourcing and managing manufacturing and fulfillment, marketing via traditional distribution to mass merchants, chains, individual retailers, direct marketing via DRTV, internet and crowd funding, forming strategic partnerships and launching and selling start-up companies. We don't know of anyone in our industry who's had our breadth and depth of experience. We've enjoyed a lot of success and have learned from failures too. Learn more about us here.
Over the years we've heard from inventors who've wasted thousands, tens of thousands and even hundreds of thousands of dollars pursuing their dreams and failing. Invention City's mission is to help inventors keep money in their pockets, increase their chances of success and commercialize great new product ideas through licensing and partnership deals. The Invention City team is comprised of successful inventors and entrepreneurs who've made their money by bringing new patented products to market. We want to make money with you, not from you. Read about us here .
Lies don't fly.
Choosing Invention City
The difference between Invention City and other invention companies is the success, depth and unique experiences of the Invention City team along with a business model that's structured to profit with inventors rather than from them. Invention City grew out of WorkTools, Inc., (read about WorkTools here.) We come at this business having been bona fide garage inventors and that's where our hearts remain. These links explain:
We believe that inventors should do as much as they can on their own and then, when informed and ready, seek help and advice from providers who genuinely care. Our Brutally Honest Review is a great way to get professional feedback and a real chance for success. A visit to the info booth is a good way to get started. Be careful about disclosing proprietary and confidential information to anyone. We hope that your visit is productive. Please visit us often and let us know how we can make things better.
Invention City provides inventors and new product idea developers with information, resources and help for each stage of the inventing process. Use the links above to learn how to:
Servings of no" are part of the inventing experience. George was a proud and successful older man. He’d survived the Holocaust as a child. Then he escaped communist Romania with only the clothes on his back. He’d made his way to America where he built a successful tool company that he had retired from. We’d just finished pitching George’s invention to a young engineer who worked for one of the world’s largest brands. The young engineer had said no and was beginning to explain why. George couldn’t take it. He looked squarely at the young man and in his ...
"To a hammer everything looks like a nail." Successful inventors do not work alone, they get help from professionals along the way. Finding someone good and trustworthy is obviously important. Equally important is finding the right help at the right time. At the beginning stages, good advice from a specialist might steer you in the wrong direction - be careful about engaging a company or adviser who specializes primarily in one aspect. For example, if your first adviser is a patent attorney, they will give you advice centered around patent protection. That’s how they see the world and that’s exactly ...
Gator-Grip patents have expired. That's why so many knockoffs exist today.If your invention idea is successful it will be copied. That's a simple fact that every inventor must face. Patents, trademarks and copyright (collectively known as intellectual property or IP) are tools you can use to fight the copies. But how do they actually work?The #1 thing to know is that you have to enforce IP on your own. The government doesn't do it for you. It is up to you to inform the infringer that they are infringing and then either negotiate a settlement or sue them in ...
Make a dartboard out of rejection letters. It was 35 years ago but I'm still elevated about the rejection letter we got from the tool reviewer at the Whole Earth Catalog. Our product, the SqueezeDriver, seemed like a perfect fit. Whole Earth was a crunchy granola pro-environment publication and the SqueezeDriver was mechanical and wouldn't add toxic battery waste to the earth. It also gave you a feel for what you were doing, great for precision work where you don't want to strip screws. We'd sent the tool reviewer a sample and he responded with a letter. A long letter ...
Licensing deals are rare. When they happen, the process can sometimes take up to a year. However, sometimes things go fast. Before you make a first phone call to a licensing prospect, know what "yes" means for you.One of the first things a prospective licensee will ask is a test question: what are you looking for? If your answer is unrealistic (for them), they'll walk away in an instant. You may get the chance to say "only kidding," but maybe not. The best way to know what "yes" should be is to take a hard look at your alternatives. If ...
