Patents

[Goldie]

Well, this might be a bit of a long shot, but I was wondering if anyone here has any experience obtaining a patent for the design of a product.

Also, does anyone here have any experience meeting with a company to sell your idea.

Any feedback at all is greatly appreciated. Thanks guys.

Drew

[massphatness]

Check with gnukfu - he went to school to for patent law
Posted via Mobile Device

[Mugen910]

Also check with BlackIrish...

[Goldie]

Thanks gents. Will do.

[BlackIrish]

Hey, Drew.

A good place to start is the USPTO.gov website -- but NOT the main page, which is confusing as hell. There's a page aimed at independent inventors, like yourself, that's easier to understand. http://www.uspto.gov/inventors/index.jsp


A couple of big points that you want to keep in mind:

Getting a patent, while not easy, is the easy part. For an independent inventor, the hard part is commercializing the product. A patent is just a piece of paper with a fancy ribbon if you can't get your product on store shelves or otherwise sold to consumers/businesses.

You can do it on your own, which involves an enormous amount of time and effort, and often disappointment, because most of us don't have the experience, network, or resources to put in place a manufacturing and distribution network.

You can try to partner with an established player in the industry, but that has risks all its own. Some major players in some industries (e.g., running shoe manufacturers) won't accept unsolicited ideas. Others will accept them, subject to extensive "idea submission" agreements. And, unfortunately, there are unscrupulous sorts who may take your idea, use it, and say that they already had the idea under development. Then there's the riskiest option: scams by "invention promotion companies," some of whose ads you may see on late night TV. That industry is so rife with questionable behavior that the USPTO has a whole brochure devoted to scam prevention and a database of complaints. http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/com/iip/documents/scamprevent.pdf

PM sent.

PS: none of this is legal advice, of course, and all of it is just my own opinion, and not the viewpoint or position of anyone who might complain about it. ;)