Another reason inventors get shafted? All those industry magnates who slam doors in your face wait to see if a product succeeds. If it does, they copy it. A piece of plastic here, a different paint job, a new name, and presto: completely different product, right? Wrong, but it doesn't matter. They often get away with it. They have more clout than inventors, more money than the small operator. More and better attorneys, too.

"It's easy for larger companies to outcompete inventors," Reed warns. "When large companies move quickly, they produce more product in a shorter period and flood the market, usually at a price low enough to push the inventor right off the shelves."

"The validity of a patent is only as strong as your ability to defend it in court," Storm adds. "The cost of getting a patent is high, but only a fraction of the cost of defending one."

Storm's second lure, the Thin Fin, was introduced in 1965. Another much larger company produced an exact duplication when the lure's popularity went off the charts in the Southeast. "We vigorously prosecuted and won the case," Storm said, "but maybe we lost the war. They played delaying tactics to cost us money, and it worked. We spent time and money in court that would better have been spent on new projects." Storm also admits that it's rare in his industry to win such cases.

Why do these things happen in this country where opportunity for the little guy is supposedly sacred? Maybe it's everybody's fault. "As an inventor and a fisherman, I think the best thing the average angler can do is buy original products rather than imitations," Reed states. "That will put more original products on the market. The whole tackle industry has fallen into this trap of copying someone else or adding bells or whistles to something that's been around forever and calling it new."

So you wanna make a million? Whatever route you take, it's going to be a hard road.

Is it worth it? Consider this excerpt from an aid booklet published by the Small Business Administration: "If you continue to believe in your idea after looking at the odds and obstacles, you are being unreasonable. Exactly as you should be. You're in good company."

George Bernard Shaw observed, "All progress is made by unreasonable people. Reasonable people adapt to the world around them; unreasonable people try to change it."

But for most folks most of the time, the best way to make a million is not to spend it on illusions.

Continued - click on page link below.