Has anyone ever tried to market an idea or invention? There a cabinet shop
and the guy has designed a custom router bit for making continues molding
and stackable. The idea is you can run the same molding as a base and then
go right around a door (with a 45) and continue threw the whole house. You
could do this with any base and sound's like it would like crap. I really
did not understand the stackable part. Here is the bad part, he got some
patent lawyer to do a patent, of course this has cost $$$$$$$$$ he has even
sold his car and living in his shop. The big hook is, there is a Co.
interested in it for 1mill and royalties, but first we need patents in
Europe. This poor guy should be warring a T-Shirt that say's "I should of
said no". But what would be a better way to try and Market or sell an Idea?
Or do you just hope you don't get racket over the coals? I know allot of
people have Invention or an Idea, I have so many good ideas I get overloaded
and end up back at work, thinking of more ways to get out of work.

Sacramento Dave screamed in anguish:

chomp

I have so many good ideas I get overloaded
and end up back at work, thinking of more ways to get out of work.



You need to avoid amphetamines.

"Sacramento Dave" wrote in message
...
Has anyone ever tried to market an idea or invention? ... The big hook is,
there is a Co.
interested in it for 1mill and royalties, but first we need patents in
Europe. This poor guy should be warring a T-Shirt that say's "I should of
said no". But what would be a better way to try and Market or sell an
Idea?
Or do you just hope you don't get racket over the coals?

The problem with patents is that they cost an absolute fortune to get via
the usual channels (as your friend seems to have found out) and they offer
virtually no protection in the real world unless you have the money to go
after all the people who WILL use the idea without paying for licenses. The
way things are now, Acme Company will infringe on your patent and you'll
call your $250/hr lawyer to prepare the paperwork for an injunction. By the
time it's served, Acme has disappeared and the same people are calling
themselves Worldwide Widget Corporation so your lawyer gets another call,
and this goes on until you run out of money. Meanwhile your competitors are
raking it in -- it's a lot cheaper to dissolve a company and file papers to
start another one than it is to prosecute under the patent laws. Or maybe
your competitors are honest. All they have to do is modify some part of
your invention's "claims" section and they have a whole new thing in the
eyes of the USPTO. From what I can tell (I have a couple of patents myself)
patents are more trouble than they're worth, and any company big enough to
be interested in licensing an individual's personal patent will generally
have enough technically-savvy people to "improve" on the patent and get
around it without paying any money to the original inventor at all.

On 08/11/05 07:55 pm Steve Richardson tossed the following ingredients
into the ever-growing pot of cybersoup:

Has anyone ever tried to market an idea or invention? ... The big hook is,
there is a Co.
interested in it for 1mill and royalties, but first we need patents in
Europe. This poor guy should be warring a T-Shirt that say's "I should of
said no". But what would be a better way to try and Market or sell an
Idea?
Or do you just hope you don't get racket over the coals?

The problem with patents is that they cost an absolute fortune to get via
the usual channels (as your friend seems to have found out) and they offer
virtually no protection in the real world unless you have the money to go
after all the people who WILL use the idea without paying for licenses. The
way things are now, Acme Company will infringe on your patent and you'll
call your $250/hr lawyer to prepare the paperwork for an injunction. By the
time it's served, Acme has disappeared and the same people are calling
themselves Worldwide Widget Corporation so your lawyer gets another call,
and this goes on until you run out of money. Meanwhile your competitors are
raking it in -- it's a lot cheaper to dissolve a company and file papers to
start another one than it is to prosecute under the patent laws. Or maybe
your competitors are honest. All they have to do is modify some part of
your invention's "claims" section and they have a whole new thing in the
eyes of the USPTO. From what I can tell (I have a couple of patents myself)
patents are more trouble than they're worth, and any company big enough to
be interested in licensing an individual's personal patent will generally
have enough technically-savvy people to "improve" on the patent and get
around it without paying any money to the original inventor at all.

An uncle of mine (in UK) has a bunch of patents for mechanical devices.
I don't know how much it cost him to register them, but I don't think
he's ever made a penny out of them.

Perce

"Steve Richardson" wrote in message

The problem with patents is that they cost an absolute fortune to get via
the usual channels (as your friend seems to have found out) and they offer
virtually no protection in the real world unless you have the money to go
after all the people who WILL use the idea without paying for licenses.
The way things are now, Acme Company will infringe on your patent and
you'll call your $250/hr lawyer to prepare the paperwork for an
injunction.

Worked for a guy that had 17 patents. He made a few bucks off of one of
them but invested tens of thousands of dollars to get it started. . He
used to laugh because it was so simple to get around it legally, but no one
ever did.

The other 16 were simply wall decorations. They either did not sell, or
someone did have a similar item and it was so close, no need to pay
royalties.

You have to determine it your ideal is patentable.
Assuming it is, you have to determine if it is something that will sell
Then you have to find someone to make it or be willing to pay you for a
license and royalty setup.
If you never sell a piece, the layer still gets his money for the work he
did. Plenty of companies out thee willing to take your money to help you,
but I don't think they are concerned about anything buy taking your $$$

It can work, but it is an expensive road.

Unless he's already rolling in dough, I'd say a million plus
royalties is a hell of a start. If he's actually been offered
that, he should go with it.
He will no longer have the intellectual rights to it if he
sells it for a million plus royatleis and NONE of the
infringement etc. will be his problem: The company owning the
intellectual rights to it will be the ones concerned with most of
the things brought up here.
If they're willing to pay a million for it, they'll also
gladly help get it patented in Europe or wherever the markets/mfg
areas may be determined to be.
Unless he's a flash in the pan, this will be only the
beginning for him. IFF this story has any factual basis to it,
that is. Infringements or not, there WILL be royalties, and each
nickel adds to the future plans to go after the infringers; you
do not do that immediately.

Patents do not cost a small fortune. Actually, they are very
cheap to get. It's the preparations and the forms that people
get taken for. O'seas does cost more because you need technical
writes and language translatiors, but that's why companies have
legal depts wherever they are located. It's easy to submit for a
patent, do the patent search (which is no guarantee BTW that you
aren't infringing) in NA and not a lot harder in Europe (EU) once
you know what to do, what the correct syntax is, and find a good
technical translator.
That guy needs to chat with the SBA and a few other reliable
sources to get some experience and decent advice under his belt.
A lawyer is NOT the place to start! You also are not the person
he needs for advice, judging by your lack of understanding and
several other things about your post.

Regards,

Pop


"Steve Richardson" wrote in message
...
: "Sacramento Dave" wrote in message
: ...
: Has anyone ever tried to market an idea or invention? ... The
big hook is,
: there is a Co.
: interested in it for 1mill and royalties, but first we need
patents in
: Europe. This poor guy should be warring a T-Shirt that say's
"I should of
: said no". But what would be a better way to try and Market or
sell an
: Idea?
: Or do you just hope you don't get racket over the coals?
:
: The problem with patents is that they cost an absolute fortune
to get via
: the usual channels (as your friend seems to have found out) and
they offer
: virtually no protection in the real world unless you have the
money to go
: after all the people who WILL use the idea without paying for
licenses.

Using an idea and making profit from it are two different things.
Does this thing need tooling, inventory, etc. etc. or what?
That's rhetorical but point is, it's not as simple as you would
like it to be.
The
: way things are now, Acme Company will infringe on your patent
and you'll
: call your $250/hr lawyer to prepare the paperwork for an
injunction.

That's not the first task; lots of upfront work to do first.
Injunctions may never be used, and often are ineffective anyway.

By the
: time it's served, Acme has disappeared and the same people are
calling
: themselves Worldwide Widget Corporation so your lawyer gets
another call,
: and this goes on until you run out of money.

Which is why he needs more advice than can be found on a
newsgroup!

Meanwhile your competitors are
: raking it in --

Not verly likely.

it's a lot cheaper to dissolve a company and file papers to
: start another one than it is to prosecute under the patent
laws. Or maybe
: your competitors are honest. All they have to do is modify
some part of
: your invention's "claims" section and they have a whole new
thing in the
: eyes of the USPTO. From what I can tell (I have a couple of
patents myself)
: patents are more trouble than they're worth, and any company
big enough to
: be interested in licensing an individual's personal patent will
generally
: have enough technically-savvy people to "improve" on the patent
and get
: around it without paying any money to the original inventor at
all.

Your experience in the patent arena sounds very suspect and a
company patenting something you worked on is has no similarity to
a single person patenting anything.

It's also not true that you can change the size of a bolt and
patent it as a different machine and claim it as your own.
Patent definitions and descriptions and disclosures are much more
complex than that. You're either the victim of, or the source
of, some large amount of misinformation and myths concerning
patents and the patent office. They're onine and easy to access
if you want to know more.

Pop

"Patents do not cost a small fortune. Actually, they are very
cheap to get. It's the preparations and the forms that people
get taken for."

In the United States to apply for a patent and pursue it all the way to
a granted U.S. patent cost a minimum of about $2000 in patent office
fees for an individual or small company. If there are appeals and
other difficulties it may cost significantly more. Any legal fees are
additional.

Typical legal fees for writing and prosecuting a patent application
(U.S. only) are generally in the range of $5000 - $10,000.

I don't know if $2000 and $5000-$10,000 are "cheap" or a "small
fortune". That's for the inventor to decide.

"Pop" wrote in message
...
That guy needs to chat with the SBA and a few other reliable
sources to get some experience and decent advice under his belt.
A lawyer is NOT the place to start! You also are not the person
he needs for advice, judging by your lack of understanding and
several other things about your post.

Well, as I said, I have 2 patents and 2 more in process. I've submitted on
many more than that. You can check USPTO if you'd like to read the ones I
have: 4,702,322 "Explosion suppression system" and an improvement on it,
5,826,664 "Active fire and explosion suppression system employing a
recloseable valve". I know every step of the process that led to them, and
I know they weren't cheap. I also know it CAN be done without a lawyer but
only if the applicant is familiar with both the process and the unique
formatting (and jargon) required by USPTO. "Sacramento Dave" asked for
advice, I gave him the benefit of my own personal experience with the
process, and I'll stand on that. Thanks to the others who tried to sound
the same cautionary tone: Patents aren't a panacea, they take a year or
more to issue (often much longer as questions arise over claims), and
they're routinely bypassed even when they're not ignored altogether. Now
I'm going back to lurking -- too many newsgroups, too little time!
- Steve Richardson
St Louis MO

wrote:

I have a good friend who has been through this several times. Whenever
he tried the idea of selling his idea he was robbed and left laying in
the dirt. Now he simply applies for the patent and immediately starts
manufacturing the product...

As a former IPR manager and registered US patent agent, I think it's
easier to get the patent and wait for others to steal the idea, then
sue them for treble damages.

Nick

Has anyone ever tried to market an idea or invention?

I had an idea for patenting oral suppositories. Because I've heard the
regular ones don't taste that good going down.

wrote in message
ps.com...
Has anyone ever tried to market an idea or invention?

I had an idea for patenting oral suppositories. Because I've heard the
regular ones don't taste that good going down.

Hey, you can take your idea and just stick it up your ass.

Hey, you can take your idea and just stick it up your ass.

that's in the Prior Art. It would be infringement