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.
I just thought of an invention idea and not real sure where to begin ? I feel I have a good diagram, description etc. of my product. I have searched and received information from www.davison.com, I have not signed, nor informed them of my idea only received their information. I do not have money to invest into this idea but feel is a very good one, I have Goggle it and have not found anything alike. I need advise on what do to and how to go about doing this and not be scammed or ripped off.
Answer Hi Mike,
Avoiding companies with upfront fees, lawsuits filed against them (they lost), tons of complaints year in and year out is a recipe to shy away from and, when they ask for big fees starting out with less than a thousand dollars in Phase 1 followed by many thousands in Phase 2 and one has a disaster in the making.
So what does one do?
Join a local inventors club where you'll likely find lots of free help.
Visit a local library for books about the process.
Do lots of research on the marketplace to see who is selling in the invention product category and what is the average (retail) sales price. Your goal should be to stay within the wholesale price range as it will be marked up one vendor to the next.If it can't be manufacturered and produced within that range it's not a good formula no matter how great it is. And, if tooling would have to be invented or changed for it, it may not be licensable.
If you have no money you find a business partner or family/friends who will invest. One's product is one's business (or it should be) so if one intends to go into business best figure out where the money is coming from from the get-go.
If you take the licensing route acquire a few prototypes as one will surely be requested and probably not returned. Above all, have the answer to the Q: what's in it for me? (Licensee) if you go that route to market.
