AboutPenny Ballou Expertise The Invention Process; Royalties; Licensing Inventions/Products; Pricing; Direct to Market; Marketing/Promotions; Patent Searching; DIY patent writing; Types of patents/costs/how to's; Funding (grants and Angel investors); Prototyping; Off-Shore sourcing.
Experience I am founder of an inventors group; Advisory Board President of www.inventored.org; former Licensing Executive Society member; researcher for www.piausa.org and a consultant; plus moderate and contribute to several online inventor discussion groups.
Publications Enter my email address into any search engine to find them.
Education/Credentials Invention development: well-studied and applied in all aspects of the process and an inventor myself with one invention in patent pending and others ramping up. Lived and attended schools in Mainland China and the UK.
Question QUESTION: My sister and I have two great product ideas that we have research and found that they are missing from the market and we know that there is a need for them. My question is in two parts, what is your opinion on having a company marketing and developing our product and if so how do we safeguard ourselves from being taken advantage off, or should we invest in having a prototype created for us and market it our selves? Thank you so much for your advice.
ANSWER: Morning Marcella,
I see you have questions for me so let's see what we can do:
1. My sister and I have two great product ideas that we have research and found that they are missing from the market and we know that there is a need for them. My question is in two parts, what is your opinion on having a company marketing and developing our product and if so how do we safeguard ourselves from being taken advantage off,
a) I would be very, very leery of hiring any company who seeks money up-front. If they are willing to "fully" invest their beans to bring it to market then no harm done. Usually companies who use their own beans to bring products to market entertain a 70/30 split or thereabouts (70 going to them since they took all risk).
b) You saveguard the concept by not disclosing it to anyone who expects to be paid up-front to try to help "market" it.
c) You ignore, in my opinion, patent attorneys or agents who write for these types of "invention promoters."
2. ...should we invest in having a prototype created for us and market it our selves? Thank you so much for your advice
What "I" would do is as follows:
(a) Do a preliminary Google prior art patent search at www.google.com/patents Use less than five keywords to try to find anything like your invention just in case it has already been patented even though it may not have been marketed (hence why you've never seen it in stores). If the patent is still in-force you'll have to negotiate with the inventor a licensing agreement to make and use what is legally his. After any patent expires, you can freely make and use it at your leisure.
(b) Have done a Market Analysis yet? If not get started on it.
(c) How about a Business/Marketing Plan (if you intend to take it to market yourself)
(d) Your local S.C.O.R.E. office can help you work out and write (b&c).
(e) Have you joined your local inventors club yet? There one usually find lots of help and advice.
(f) Only "invest" in a prototype after a patent search has been done and after you determine why your idea has not been seen in the marketplace to date. There may be a very good reason. Prototypes can be expensive if one can't make one oneself. It's usually a good idea to have one before applying for a patent to ensure it works the way one intends it should. Nothing worse than having a worthless patent on something that had to be changed in the manufacturing process because it wouldn't work the way it was described in the patent.
(g) "Safeguards" are generally limited to:
(i) Keeping the invention (how it's made/used)a trade secret.
(ii) Getting everyone it has to be disclosed to, to sign a Non Disclosure/Non Comptete Agreement before explaining what it is and if possible don't do that but talk only in terms of what it's "benefits" are such as: it helps campers stay out in the boonies a few days longer rather than be forced to find a town to fill up with water, electricity, propane, etc. Talk Benefits not technology; not how it looks; not how it works.
Hope that helps.
Regards,
Penny Ballou
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QUESTION: Hi Penny, Marcella again, do you know much about the sponsored links below this web site? and if so can you advise on the "Davison.com" link for creating and marketing and the like. Thank you so much.
Answer Hi Hon,
Be very cautious about those sponsored links.
Enter into Google keywords:
Davison Design and Development
then try
complaints about Davison Design
then try
Lawsuits filed against Davision Design
The web is littered with complaints, lawsuits etc. They lost and must pay back 26-million to inventors but bargained it down to $10-mill.
It's the second lawsuit they've lost brought against them the FTC.
Their name is usually found on the patent office complaints page.
Enter into www.ripoffreport.com the name Davison to find hundreds of complaints.
Like I said, keep away from inventon companies with up-front fees is my personal opinion and keep away from sponsored links. Advertisers have to pay to get their names in lights and pay big bucks!
