Do you think a patent is required?

[bradipaus]

Hi everyboby, I've finished a couple of days ago the Fastlane book and I'm just registered to the Fastlane Forum.

While reading the final part of the book I was thinking of something that could be a great business idea based on MJ suggestion. As I have a 9 month child, I realized that within all the thousands of gadgets for baby child there is something missing and that I think could be extremely usefull for all the parents with very young baby.

I immediately made a prototipe to check if it works and to estimate the cost which is not high.

as I'm new to this, I need a suggest from all of you who have been involved in innovation or invention ... do you think a patent is required or not?

thx
Bra

 

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[CSRelentless]

If you already have a prototype then I would at least get a provisional patent and get a lawyer to draw up a non-disclosure agreement and then you could test the market for your idea or pitch it to other companies without fear of your idea being stolen. There no reason not to get a provisional patent, it is really cheap, and if your idea ends up a bust then your not losing much. If it ends up being a good idea and it sales, then you can pursue an actual patent. With a provisional your idea is protected for a year until you need to apply for a patent.

 

[Kak]

A provisional can be had for around $100 and it will last a year... It is important to note that you can not enforce a provisional... It gives you pending status not anything real. Basically an idle threat that you might get a patent issued for this so basically to a competitor "you might get sued in a few years if you copy us"...

Also there are certain things that bar you from patenting a product. Offering it for sale will make it unpatentable pretty much immediately.

It is also a bit of a dice roll. If you can gauge demand somewhat accurately before you pay to have a patent done it may be worth it, but it is also important to note that you could spend between 5-15 grand on the process of getting a patent and it might not even issue...

IMO patents and patenting sucks, but it can be an useful tool in the right circumstance.

 

[LynnD5000]

Your Question is an interesting one...Here's why - have you ever heard of a weed eater? If you know the story about it you might recall that the original patent owner never got a penny from it. About the time his patent came out - a number of similar patents were issued to major corporations and he lost everything in litigation trying to prove it was his original idea...

The problem is that the patent office is a public access area and has people that work there that get paid by big business to watch for stuff that might be worth obtaining - it takes a couple of design changes and as long as they mention the original patent paperwork they can also get a (design) patent good for 14 years instead of 17 - and the little guy will go broke trying to protect it.

You may also have heard of McPherson Strut - he also patented the coil over shock system - the difference - he's rich and the weed eater dude is broke - why?

LICENSING - McPhearson licensed his strut to every car manufacturer for a small royalty fee - that they didn't have to pay unless they used it...

My patent is US Patent [HASHTAG]#356[/HASHTAG],785 - I received it in 1995 - back when computers were still new. I never made a dime on it but it was a RUSH to develop it from idea to production and see it sold in three countries.

The reason I never made a dime was it is INCREDIBLY expensive to get a product - No matter how good, to get it on the market.

So - where am I going with this -

If I were to do it all over again -

If you have a great I idea and a prototype - spend your time & money getting it market ready - the education will be well worth it and when you get it to the market stage - get a provisional patent the I'd go find 3 or 4 big companies and using a Non-Disclosure agreement - offer them a FREE license for a small royalty...

This works very well also - I currently get a check every quarter from the Lisle Tool Corporation and will for the next 8 years for the royalties. They did the patent on it and own the patent on it (they also defend the patent) - There checks don't bounce and I don't have any sleepless nights trying to figure out how to pay a production bill and payroll...

Just a little food for thought...

L

 

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[CSRelentless]

A provisional can be had for around $100 and it will last a year... It is important to note that you can not enforce a provisional... It gives you pending status not anything real. Basically an idle threat that you might get a patent issued for this so basically to a competitor "you might get sued in a few years if you copy us"...

Also there are certain things that bar you from patenting a product. Offering it for sale will make it unpatentable pretty much immediately.

It is also a bit of a dice roll. If you can gauge demand somewhat accurately before you pay to have a patent done it may be worth it, but it is also important to note that you could spend between 5-15 grand on the process of getting a patent and it might not even issue...

IMO patents and patenting sucks, but it can be an useful tool in the right circumstance.

So if I sale a new product to consumers It cannot be patented? Not even someone else can? Sorry just trying to understand,learn something new.

 

[CSRelentless]

Your Question is an interesting one...Here's why - have you ever heard of a weed eater? If you know the story about it you might recall that the original patent owner never got a penny from it. About the time his patent came out - a number of similar patents were issued to major corporations and he lost everything in litigation trying to prove it was his original idea...

The problem is that the patent office is a public access area and has people that work there that get paid by big business to watch for stuff that might be worth obtaining - it takes a couple of design changes and as long as they mention the original patent paperwork they can also get a (design) patent good for 14 years instead of 17 - and the little guy will go broke trying to protect it.

You may also have heard of McPherson Strut - he also patented the coil over shock system - the difference - he's rich and the weed eater dude is broke - why?

LICENSING - McPhearson licensed his strut to every car manufacturer for a small royalty fee - that they didn't have to pay unless they used it...

My patent is US Patent [HASHTAG]#356[/HASHTAG],785 - I received it in 1995 - back when computers were still new. I never made a dime on it but it was a RUSH to develop it from idea to production and see it sold in three countries.

The reason I never made a dime was it is INCREDIBLY expensive to get a product - No matter how good, to get it on the market.

So - where am I going with this -

If I were to do it all over again -

If you have a great I idea and a prototype - spend your time & money getting it market ready - the education will be well worth it and when you get it to the market stage - get a provisional patent the I'd go find 3 or 4 big companies and using a Non-Disclosure agreement - offer them a FREE license for a small royalty...

This works very well also - I currently get a check every quarter from the Lisle Tool Corporation and will for the next 8 years for the royalties. They did the patent on it and own the patent on it (they also defend the patent) - There checks don't bounce and I don't have any sleepless nights trying to figure out how to pay a production bill and payroll...

Just a little food for thought...

L

So if you give them a license to use your idea for royalties then they can patent your product but you still get royalties off of it? How exactly does that work if they own the patent?

 

[LynnD5000]

Before you sign over the rights on the provisional patent you - negotiate a deal by contract - the contract transfers your ownership as the inventor to them and they use their attorneys to do the rest - you just collect the check.

The reason I mentioned research to get it market ready is this - if they can tool up and put it on the market a week after they cut the deal with you. They get excited...

If your market research shows them the money - it makes it much more of an "I gotta have this" vs before I can put it on the market I will have to spend $$$ to develop it, test it, do the market research, etc etc etc...ho hum...

Thumb back to MJ's book - "Solve a Problem - make a Mint!" - If your product, research and presentation are good enough - they will throw money at you because - every business in the World has the PROBLEM of what is our next money making product going to be...your product and research SOLVES their biggest problem.

L

 

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[Kak]

So if I sale a new product to consumers It cannot be patented? Not even someone else can? Sorry just trying to understand,learn something new.

Yes this is correct. Even if you publish stuff about it commercially, or show it off at a trade show it can't be patented.

 

[Kak]

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Eskil]

Yep, what @Kak said. I went through the full cycle here with provisional, then full app + design patent for my product.

Each case is different though, and there isn't always a straight answer as to why or why not you should patent. But it doesn't hurt to do at least a provisional (which you can also use to pursue licensing!), since it is also very affordable.

 

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[CSRelentless]

@Kak @LynnD5000 Thank you.

 

[bradipaus]

thanks everybody guys for your advice. if I discover additional tips that could be useful for everyone on this topic I'll let you know