Novelty Products

[GGriffinGG]

In a thread with Stephen Key, he said this about a few of his products he licensed: "These were with the gift an novelty industry. I have talked about this before. Very short lived products. No protection. They are not inventions. This industry did not require patents." Now, because I have an idea in the novelty industry, I would appreciate it if someone with licensing experience could help explain why one does not need a patent (or provisional patent) for the novelty industry. If I went about all the other steps to license a product (contacting a company and sending them my sell sheet), but did not have a provisional patent, what stops the manufacturer from taking my idea? So basically I'm asking, how can I license my novelty idea to a company if no patents are involved? Thanks a lot.

 

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[yahdmon]

The only reason I can see it working is via trademark. By that I mean the company name is on the product, no patent is on the product so they use a type of shotgun approach. They put out multiple products in quantities of 5000 or there about.

This is the model I am using for our products.

I am not interested in licensing right now nor patents. I release the items with name unique to my entity and that is what I push, that is what I will defend -- the name, not the product which can be easily copied and used by others, just cannot call it the name we have given it.

Attemp to do that and we come after you like a bull dog.

That is our aim right now.

 

[GGriffinGG]

Thanks for the response! So if I understand you correctly, you are saying that for me to license a novelty item, I would need to trademark the name of it? If this is what you are saying, I still don't see why the manufacturer wouldn't just use my idea and change the name a little bit to circumvent the trademark.

 

[yahdmon]

That is what I am saying and yes, I agree with you and could conclude that there is really no obstacles to prevent the manufacturer from entering the market or changing your product and selling a version for themselves.

Thanks for the response! So if I understand you correctly, you are saying that for me to license a novelty item, I would need to trademark the name of it? If this is what you are saying, I still don't see why the manufacturer wouldn't just use my idea and change the name a little bit to circumvent the trademark.

Oddly though, they do not. I have stories of going to persons who make an item that would fit perfectly into their industry and add another source of revenue and they had no interest and were quite happy to make the product for me while focussing on what they know already work.

With all that said, let me admonish you to not let this prevent you from moving forward. EXECUTION is the key. Do not allow fear of these issues to prevent you from doing just that. Do something as sitting and thinking generally leads no where.

 

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