Get Million Dollars for Your Inventions

I came across this opportunity when I saw it on a Google Adsense advertisement on a website.

How many of us have "inventions" in our head that we never put to use? I can't even begin to count the number of times that I thought up a product then a few years later saw my idea patented and sold on television. You know those fragrance inserts that you can put into your furnaces vent? I thought of those way before they were ever on the market. Too bad I never actually took action! Those things are sold everywhere now! Heck, I even buy them myself!
I know many people can relate to "having your idea stolen", even though it never really was "stolen".

But getting a patent, paying to have your product prototyped, then manufactured, then marketed and so on can cost tens of thousands of dollars or more! Did you watch that television show "American Inventor"? If you did then you probably saw all those people who spent their life savings (literally) on their invention and were never able to get it on the market. So what's the solution? What do you do if you're lazy (like me) but you have ideas? Here's one possible solution:

There's this website called IdeaWarz (Cambrian House). People (potential "inventors") submit their ideas/inventions to IdeaWarz and "battle it out" for some cool prizes and a chance to have their invention become a real product.

Here's how the process works:

You create a free account and submit your idea (invention) in the form of a paragraph or so blurb. Your idea can be pretty much anything. I saw one guys idea, it was for a site similar to myspace but it allows people from all over the world to meet each other with the intentions of investing real estate. This idea would allow people to find partnerships easily.

Each month 16 ideas are selected to battle in the tournament. Then, just like on those reality television shows, each week, half the ideas advance, and the other half drop out. Which ideas advance and which don't is determined solely by the voters - people like you and I. Anybody who is registered can vote one time per week. Votes are tallied up each Wednesday at noon.

At the end of the month one idea is left and declared the tournament champion.

The winning idea is placed permanently in the IdeaWars "Hall of Fame" and that person is given the grand prize of a Market Test. A Market Test consists of building a website, launching a marketing campaign, and dedicating $$$ towards the pre-sales and marketing of the idea on the web. Basically you will be able to determine if your product really holds weight in the real world. Now here's the big part: lets say your idea has thus far proven to be a hit. Lets say that you have received a lot of support from people through your market test. Now it's time to move forward. As your idea begin to take off you will begin to get royalties through the form of "Royalty Points". Royalty points = cash money.

According to the IdeaWarz/Cambrian House website, "Each project starts with 1500 Royalty Points. Up to 150 points are allotted to the inventor of the idea, and the remaining points are allocated to development tasks for the product. These tasks will be given different point values depending on their complexity, balanced against the current life cycle and potential profit of the finished project. Inventors are welcome to contribute work on the product themselves, increasing their share of Royalty Points. The whole idea is to tie productivity to reward. The more the community does, the more the community benefits -- including you!"

The IdeaWarz website provides an income calculator that can be used to determine the amount of money you could be able to generate. Assuming you submit an idea and get 150 Royalty Points and your idea does "Good", you could possibly earn $230,000 during the course of 3 years. With an idea that does "Poor" you could still take in $5,000 in a three year period. But if your idea does Exceptional you're looking at potentially making a million bucks over 3 years time.

To check out IdeaWarz, click here: http://www.cambrianhouse.com/

Now for the "Tough Questions": (excerpt taken from the FAQs Page)

1. When do I get paid?
All payment is handled via the Royalty Point system. Once an idea is commercialized into a product and there is gross profit, you will receive your share.

2. How often can I get paid? And how?
Monthly via PayPal

3. What portion of profits does Cambrian House keep?
The gross profits are paid out to all members based on the proportion of Royalty Points they have. The amount of points kept by Cambrian House is dependent on the amount invested in a project. Since each project varies Cambrian House will keep anywhere from 25-50% of all available Royalty Points.

4. What happens if the final product gets acquired by another company?
If a company acquires a Cambrian House product, they have two options. Either they can continue honoring the Royalty Point agreement, or they can buy out the agreement by making lump sum payments to contributors. Community means everything to us, so if a product does get bought out the likelihood of getting back more than your rightful Royalty Points is pretty good.

5. How do I know you guys aren't going to steal my idea?
Because if we did that, no one would submit their ideas to us. In all seriousness, it is in our best interest to make submitting your idea as rewarding as possible, and our legal position supports inventor rights.

6. Who builds my idea?
The Cambrian House community does. Software developers, graphic artists, and copywriters from all corners of the Web come together to make it a reality. In early projects, first pass may be given to internal Cambrian House employees, but eventually all work will be outsourced to the community in exchange for Royalty Points on the product.