An Inventor's Notebook is one of the most sacred tools of the inventor. It is a special notebook used to record the date of concept of your invention and all the work you have done related to it.

Every inventor who plans to be able to have evidence of the date of concept provable in court must be keeping an inventor's notebook. In the US, we are a "First to Invent" country, not a "First to File" country. Although unique in the regard virtually throughout the world, this is a great boon for inventors, the only catch is the inventor has to be able to prove that they were the first to invent using the supporting evidence they have recorded in their inventor's notebook.

NO! You can not use just any notebook for your inventor's notebook. Well, you can, however it is not at all likely to hold up in a court of law as evidence in your favor. There is a specific kind of notebook which has been determined by the courts to be the "right kind" of notebook. In all actuality it resembles a blank book more than a notebook.

The old "MEAD" style notebook will not be the type of notebook you are looking for. Read on to find out what kind of notebook is the best to use as your inventor's notebook.

Basically any type of book with a "Stitched" binding and sequentially numbered pages will suffice. Never use a loose leaf or spiral bound notebook. The pages can be numbered by hand, although the rest of the notebook must look to the court as if you would have been unable to tamper with it.

In addition to the basic requirements, there are a great deal of Inventor's Notebooks on the market however which provide some more important and useful features.

Some other things to look for are, a box for signatures of witnesses, box for the date and signature of the inventor, and of course the page layout that suits you best.

There are many notebooks at your local office supply store, Staples, or Office Max for instance than may fit the bill. There are also notebooks specifically designed to be inventor's notebooks available from several sources.

The BookFactory.Com has an actual inventor's notebook available for $9.99-$30 depending upon size. They will also custom design one for you if this one doesn't meet your needs. I have been thinking about creating an inventor's notebook through them with a unique and applicable page layout which would serve the inventor's goals completely, and offering it for sale at cost here on the site. That will have to wait until I can spare the extra coin however.

NOTE: An engineer's, or scientist notebook may also suffice as they are very similar in nature and acceptable configuration and content.

I have written extensively on this in the inventor's tutorials section here on the site, and when time permits I will add more here as well, until then however please consult the BookFactory.Com's guideline for filling out your inventor's notebook. They have done a great job of laying it out properly and thoroughly.

For a more comprehensive opinion, you might try this Google search for "how to use an inventor's notebook"