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To: Jim Bishop who wrote (19439)	1/8/2000 9:24:00 PM
From: Jim Bishop	Respond to of 150070

Note to self, buy more SFU.V Monday, you silly boy. In fact the order is going into webroker now, so I don't forget. auraland.com by Steve Cooke, Invention Analyst, Canadian Industrial Innovation Centre Waterloo Most inventors are aware that the ability to recognize potential competition is a key step in the inventive process. Knowing the competition's product, price, and methods of distribution and promotion is key to predicting the success of your own product. The trouble is, many inventors become so enamored with their own product's particular design that they often overlook many potential products, services, and other methods that come under the umbrella of 'possible competition'. In other words, after searching the field and seeing nothing that looks, feels, and functions exactly like their product, they may erroneously decide that there is not competition. An important skill that inventors need to develop is the ability to stand back and look at their invention from a wider perspective. Perhaps the best way to illustrate the point is with an example. Suppose, for instance, that the common paper clip did not exist in its present form and that you, yourself, are the inventor of this innovative and useful product. The job at hand consists of attempting to determine what may constitute competition. So you look around and, finding no other such trombone-shaped length of spring steel, you conclude that there is no competition for your product. Right? Of course not, you say. There are plenty of clips, clamps, and other such devices that are specifically designed to temporarily hold two or more pieces of paper together. These would indeed constitute direct competition. Furthermore, what if you took one corner of the pile of papers and folded it over on itself? While not particularly elegant, this is a 'make-do' solution. In other words, it is a method that could conceivably be employed in some cases in the absence of a standard paper clip. Such methods or habits should be considered potential competition. One wonders how much the demand for paper clips was reduced by the popularity of self adhesive note paper such as 3M's Post-it-Notes. Here is an example of a product that looks and acts nothing like your new paper clip yet in certain respects competes with it and so should certainly be put under the heading of 'competitive products'. Finally, what about the trend towards a paperless society where the emphasis is on computers for information storage, A.T.M.'s for banking, E-mail at the office, and the like? Again, what we have found here is not a specific device or even a 'habit', but a trend. A growing trend that must be taken into account when defining exactly what your 'paper clip' is competing against. So, in effect we have identified several products and methods beyond the obvious alternatives to paper clips. Don't forget to include 'make-do' methods and trends when defining competition. Remember, when trying to identify potential competition you must ask the following questions: - What problem does my innovation solve? - What products, services, and/or methods are being employed to solve it now? - What trends are in existence that may mean increased competition for my innovation? Inventors who have the ability to step back and objectively define the competition in its broadest sense will begin to get a better idea of what products, services, and methods will affect the success of their innovation. In doing this, you will have taken one more important step on the eventful road to successful product development