New Product Concept & Patent Rights

[sayzer]

It is more difficult today to come up with a new product concept then it was 5-10 yrs ago.

I do have a bright and promising product concept which I think is quite genius (a toy).

However, how am I supposed to get it protected under patent rights?

What I know is that for global patenting the total cost is approx. US$20K.
Where am I going to get that much money? GoTo a sponsor and give them the idea, and forget the rest? How to trust? Or GoTo a well known toy maker and let them capture your idea!

I am sure there are experienced people on this forum.

May I ask for some suggestions?

[Luciano]

Hi,

Toys = China

China’s forgery laws are extremely well formulated
but largely unenforced.


Best regards,


Luciano

[Melanie]

A Patent gives you the right to sue. You still need more money in the Bank to execute a successful Action at Law - and you may need lots of it to fight a big corporation.

A Copyright is free, effective in most major civilised countries and breach of Copyright is cheap to enforce.

The best and most expensive catch-all Patent will not stop someone trying (possibly successfully) from attempting to circumvent it. Patent or not, it will still be copied with impunity in 40% of the world.

My recommendation is to bring your product to market as quickly as possible and as widely as possible. Make sure you stamp (c) Copyright Sayzer 2006 on the product and the packaging. You'll frighten half the people from attempting to copy it, and you'll be six months ahead of the other half - so make sure you make the most of your lead advantage. Hopefully, you'll have made enough money in the first six months to be able to fight-off the worst of the Copyright infringements when they come.

It's not nice when someone copies your product. When it happened to me, my first instinct was to round up the boys from the production department and go and burn the offenders warehouse down... three years on and I still feel like that (and today is a good day - ask me again when I'm in a mood!)...

[sayzer]

I am trying to be optimistic but after Melanie’s post above, how am I going to do that?

The first problem is with getting this product into the market “as quickly as possible and as widely as possible” as Melanie says, and the second problem is to solve the first problem first.

Welcome to Sayzer’s paradox!

Donations are accepted! %50 will be spent to protect deer species :-)


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[Christopher4187]

How can you obtain a free copyright? I was told it costs $200.00 to file? $200.00 is good but if the cost is free, where can I go to do that?

Chris

[Melanie]

The act of creating anything original is Copyright in itself, but you need time and dated proof. The easiest and cheapest way is to send yourself a Sealed Registered Letter or package containing your concept or product. When it arrives, you put it away for the day you need to open it in front of a judge. If you wish, you can send it to a solicitor, your Bank to put in a deposit box or other notary.

The other way is to bring your product to market. The act of doing so tells everyone that it hit the street on 1st June, so when a copy comes out in a few months time, yours was first and half the population of the world is your witness. This is the option I take most of the time.

[Christopher4187]

Thanks for the clarification. From what you describe, it sounds like there is no way for anyone to complete a search to see if that specific product has already been invented. Here is a hypothetical example:

You design a product and slap a copyright on it. You market it and sell one unit to a guy on a mountain in Colorado. Theoretically, you and him along with some of your friends and family only know about the product.

At the same time, a guy in Florida invents the same product and markets it world wide with a patent. He researched the product and found nothing on the market so the patent is his. I mean, you can't fault the guy for doing research and finding nothing so he tries to market it.

Can a copyright really stop a patent? Is there anywhere "official" to file a copyright?

[Melanie]

You have as much right to your own original work as anyone else has to theirs. Later today I may invent a new kind of telephone, just as someone else in the far corner of the globe invents one just like it. We both achieved the same goal with completely independent means and thought processes. We both have a copyright on the work we created. As long as you can prove your product was your creation you have a copyright on that work. If someone files a patent subsequently, and your product is in the public domain (you have started selling it), then you have the defence of due dilligence that they missed your product when they performed the Search. Yes, there are Copyright Agents that will file your design for a fee - but we were talking here of doing something on the cheap.

Life is short, get it on the market, make some money and move on with something new. We all dream of the killer invention... the big one that will make us all millionaires... trust me, it's a lot easier to produce a hundred little things, making ten or twenty-grand on each one, than wasting your life dreaming of the big one.

[Christopher4187]

[QUOTE=Melanie]

Life is short, get it on the market, make some money and move on with [QUOTE]

That is so true. I guess some people waste a lot of time and money on trying to protect their invention but never actually get to do the fun part, produing and selling. That's good advice Melanie!