Need help with an idea

[MaxMan]

I came up with an idea for a product, does anyone have any knowledge or experience with those inventor companies that are supposed to help you.

 

[GSP7]

They help take all your money

 

[Neon Vernon]

I'm the guy from Shark Tank and am enthralled with your idea. Send me all your money and I'll get back to you with a tremendous plan/opportunity...

 

[GunnyGene]

I came up with an idea for a product, does anyone have any knowledge or experience with those inventor companies that are supposed to help you.

Get a lawyer that specializes in that. If you can, work up a dimensioned engineering drawing with details, & narrative describing the product, what it does, etc. , dated & signed by you and by a notary, when you go to the lawyer to get it registered/patented. What you have right now is unprotected intellectual property. Don't discuss it with anyone, not even here. I got burned once about 20years ago.

 

[Busterswoodshop]

I never used them , but my father did.
He had two inventions that were stolen from him .
This was years ago though , when everything was done through the mail.
I still have his original drawings.

 

[eveled]

Then even if you do get it patented, the patent will run out before you get it to production.

If you do get it patented and into production quick enough, someone will pirate it and make it over seas.

Not trying to be a stick in the mud, but the deck is stacked against us.

My ideas are going to the grave with me.

I actually sincerely wish you the best of luck.

 

[s4s4u]

I came up with an idea for a product, does anyone have any knowledge or experience with those inventor companies that are supposed to help you.

Don't do it, please. I did it and all they did was ask for more money...over and over again.

I have also come up with some new ideas that I will be marketing. I have learned a lot in the past year.

For $139 (for a small business) you can file a "provisional" patent, which protects your idea for 12 months. If during that period you are seeing success in selling your idea, you need to file a "non-provisional" patent application and that is where the big money is spent. The gov't began the provisional process to give people a chance to see if their idea is actually worth anything on the open market, before you drop the big bucks on patent lawyers.

A provisional patent is simply an explanation of what your idea does, and all information you can provide will be helpful in the case that someone tries to steal your idea. The purpose is to establish that you are the "first" to come up with the idea. A provisional patent filing doesn't require "claims" or any of the other legal jargon that you pay lawyers for. Your provisional patent filing will never see the light of day unless you need to file legal action, it just sits in a file for 12 months. You should do a patent search to make sure that nobody has already thought of your idea.

My patent guys charge $8,500 per patent application, and $4,500 for a provisional patent filing. I do not see the value in paying them for a provisional since it is so simple to file yourself, but I will pay them for the actual patent because I don't want to screw myself.

Some links:

https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/getting-patent-yourself-29493.html

https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/provisional-patent-application-procedures-29592.html

https://www.uspto.gov/patents/basics/apply/provisional-application





https://www.uspto.gov/sites/default/files/documents/sb0016.pdf

 

[Dan in MI]

A gunsmith friend has few things out on the market. Quite a few stolen by gun/parts companies that he freely shared for handshake reasonable compensation. NONE followed through (you would know some of the names) After that he just produced his own products. His advice to me was skip the expense and just make the best widget. His advice has worked for me and saved me money. A big company tried to copy one of my items. It was a 98% complete copy.... of my original design, with all the errors of the initial product. They realized it was too expensive and too difficult to make cheap. Two years later they made a de-contented plastic version that has had nothing but bad reviews from the beginning.

On the flip side if you think it is worth getting a patent remember these things.
A minor change can bypass your patent.
You catch them and order a cease and desist. You pay your lawyer. They stop you don't get compensation.
You fight for compensation - your lawyer's kid goes to college on you, the copy cat claims bankruptcy and you still get nothing.

I'm not saying a patent isn't a good idea, but make darn sure it is solid and worth the expense.

Oh, and these days China pops into the equation.

 

[s4s4u]

A minor change can bypass your patent.

Not exactly. Such a change must be an "improvement" on a "utility" patent, which is likely what we are talking about.

Reverse engineering from the CCP is certainly a concern, if the item has sufficient potential. By the time you can get a "cease and desist" order, they could have the market flooded with knock-offs.

The thing is, you get nothing for ideas that are in your head. As little as it costs for a provisional patent, it would be foolish to let your ideas die along with you.

 

[MaxMan]

Don't do it, please. I did it and all they did was ask for more money...over and over again.

I have also come up with some new ideas that I will be marketing. I have learned a lot in the past year.

For $139 (for a small business) you can file a "provisional" patent, which protects your idea for 12 months. If during that period you are seeing success in selling your idea, you need to file a "non-provisional" patent application and that is where the big money is spent. The gov't began the provisional process to give people a chance to see if their idea is actually worth anything on the open market, before you drop the big bucks on patent lawyers.

A provisional patent is simply an explanation of what your idea does, and all information you can provide will be helpful in the case that someone tries to steal your idea. The purpose is to establish that you are the "first" to come up with the idea. A provisional patent filing doesn't require "claims" or any of the other legal jargon that you pay lawyers for. Your provisional patent filing will never see the light of day unless you need to file legal action, it just sits in a file for 12 months. You should do a patent search to make sure that nobody has already thought of your idea.

My patent guys charge $8,500 per patent application, and $4,500 for a provisional patent filing. I do not see the value in paying them for a provisional since it is so simple to file yourself, but I will pay them for the actual patent because I don't want to screw myself.

Some links:

https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/getting-patent-yourself-29493.html

https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/provisional-patent-application-procedures-29592.html

https://www.uspto.gov/patents/basics/apply/provisional-application





https://www.uspto.gov/sites/default/files/documents/sb0016.pdf

Thank you. Good advice and help.

 

[MaxMan]

A gunsmith friend has few things out on the market. Quite a few stolen by gun/parts companies that he freely shared for handshake reasonable compensation. NONE followed through (you would know some of the names) After that he just produced his own products. His advice to me was skip the expense and just make the best widget. His advice has worked for me and saved me money. A big company tried to copy one of my items. It was a 98% complete copy.... of my original design, with all the errors of the initial product. They realized it was too expensive and too difficult to make cheap. Two years later they made a de-contented plastic version that has had nothing but bad reviews from the beginning.

On the flip side if you think it is worth getting a patent remember these things.
A minor change can bypass your patent.
You catch them and order a cease and desist. You pay your lawyer. They stop you don't get compensation.
You fight for compensation - your lawyer's kid goes to college on you, the copy cat claims bankruptcy and you still get nothing.

I'm not saying a patent isn't a good idea, but make darn sure it is solid and worth the expense.

Oh, and these days China pops into the equation.

That brings to mind a couple of things. When at the bank and guy came into our very surly Exec Vp's office about $ 1000.00 he claims was deposited cash in the night drop. It was cash and he got no where and started talking layers and law suits. The E Vp looked at him blew smoke from his cig in his face and said This is a seven billion dollar bank, how long can you pay your lawyers.

I had a friend who invented a toolless terminal for batteries. He patented it. The manufacture made some for him and some for themselves to sell under their name. When he coplained they said sue me.

The guy who invented the little ball in the socket wrench that holds the socket on was in court several decades before he won.

Thank you all for the input. I might file the provisional patent and then write the idea to the appropriate manufacturers and see what happens. I guess I need to form a corporation and make my handicapped wife the major stockholder and a black friend the CEO and then find a Trans guy for Vp. If it comes down to legal action that should make them settle.

 

[s4s4u]

I might file the provisional patent and then write the idea to the appropriate manufacturers and see what happens.

In my case, I am the manufacturer of my ideas. When you bring other entities into the equation it may get "complicated"

I wish you well, and I also suggest that you wait until the "last minute" before you file the provisional application just so you can get all of the value out of that 12 months that you can.

 

[MaxMan]

Then even if you do get it patented, the patent will run out before you get it to production.

If you do get it patented and into production quick enough, someone will pirate it and make it over seas.

Not trying to be a stick in the mud, but the deck is stacked against us.

My ideas are going to the grave with me.

I actually sincerely wish you the best of luck.

Stick in the mud? Hardly. I had a friend that that happened to him on his invention. Please don't take the 100 MPG carburetor to the grave with you. We need it.

 

[s4s4u]

Then even if you do get it patented, the patent will run out before you get it to production.

You really think it will take 20 years to go from paper to production

 

[ibboatin28]

One thing I heard was to make 1 of the product you want to patent and send it to yourself via registered mail but don't open it. Then you'll have evidence if anyone tries to steal it from you.

12-15 years ago I was going to patent something and it was 10K just to talk to a patent attorney. YMMV

 

[Yaworski]

A friend had an idea for a business so he went to a lawyer to get help starting it up. The lawyer talked to him about liability insurance and all the things that could go wrong. My friend decided that the hassle wasn't worth it. Six months later the lawyer opened the business in the location that my friend was going to use.

 

[rcs9250]

Best advice I ever heard on a new product was do your market research to determine the hopeful need. Get in, and then get out. Someone is going to copy it, manufacture it in China and you’ll be undersold. There are of course many exceptions to that but they’re in the minority.

 

[Terry Morgan]

Sort of a side note, who remembers Shooting Times gun writer Rick Jamison? He patented his 'short magnum' ideas and sued Winchester when they 'stole' his ideas. He won, but it was a Pyrrhic victory; in other words, he won the case, but he really lost a lot, including his career. (

https://www.bing.com/search?q=rick+...efig=6a41567c2d214decbf9a8d395bcc20b8&pc=ASTS

 

[Teflon97116]

I met a friend of a friend who designed a wristwatch with some features specific to air navigation. He wanted to sell it for $600.

The second part of his plan was to realize that somebody would surely make a $175 copy of it and undermine some of his sales. So he designed his own knockoff to sell and cash in on that market as well.

Honestly, I lost touch with him when I left the state so I don't know how that turned out, but I always thought it was a clever strategy.

 

[Yaworski]

I met a friend of a friend who designed a wristwatch with some features specific to air navigation. He wanted to sell it for $600.

I was going to buy a watch that functioned as an E6B but I lost my medical certificate so it would have served no purpose.

 

[blume357]

Sell the idea to the Chinese for what ever you can get... they will be stealing it anyway.