New Product Concept & Patent Rights

[sayzer]

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.

100% agree on this.
There are people who are spending life time only trying to be rich in short and quick way, but ending up with where they started.

These people are no different then treasure hunters; spend huge amount of money for high tech detectors, GPS, GPR etc. dreaming to find that famous big cave underneath the earth! They eventually spend 50-60 years and get nothing other then another clue to the imaginary treasure. They do not realize that they could earn good amount of money if they sold one piece of detector staff to the people they met each time on treasure thingy. Just as Melanie describes.

These people are also like the ones who seek for that perfect job and waste years in finding it. They are incapable of understanding that if they found a “normal job” early and start earning money, they could also keep seeking for that perfect job while already making money. Just as Melanie describes.

For the patent issue, back to the subject, I am wondering if geting a patent & copyright etc. in a country can be used as evidence (of invention) in another country sometime later? (I know that global patenting cost is approx US$20K.)
Since it will be in production and being sold, as Melanie said, but initially in one country only, can it be a consideration of evidence in another country WHEN applying for patent & copyright thingies in that country?

If this can be done, I can be optimistic again.

[languer]

Direct from the horse's mouth -> http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html#cr

In fact it may have been Melanie the one that provided this link back in the days.

Don't get to wrapped around with trying to decifer this. That's what lawyers do, and you could have two different outcomes from the exact same situation depending on which lawyer you have.

Quick example, you create a cool little product and sell a few. Somebody else on a different place creates the same little gadget, they have more money and a market for it so they patent it. You, "in theory", are not required to pay any royalties because you created your product without any apriori knowledge of the other product, and it was not created after the patented one. Even if it was after the patented one, if you can somehow prove that the idea was conceived before (or at the same time) as the other one you are good (again, it really depends on your lawyer).

[Travin77]

I work with a patent lawyer here in the US. In the US, you can do something called a disclosure. It is a poor-mans patent in a sense. What you do is send the patent office a disclosure of what you are working on including how it works ect..... From the day they receive it, you have two years to apply for a patent. Your item is in a sense, "patent pending". Also there are different kinds of patents. In the US the main patents are design and utility. Most individuals nowadays get a design patent. That means that you found a new method of doing something that is already patented. A utility patent is when you have invented an entirely new process or object. If you need help feel free to ask. I can help you or anyone here get a US patent or at least get you some free or almost free advice from a registered patent lawyer. BTW, these comercials like inventtech are a scam. You pay $8000 and all you get is the disclosure. For $500, I can get you a patent search and for another $500, I can get you a disclosure. PM me if anyone needs more help.

Travin

[Melanie]

When somebody ripped my product off (made the counterfeit product in Lebanon - they even copied the copyright notices and our telephone number which was etched into the PCB) I was livid and really felt like beating the guy (an Egyptian 'make a fast buck' merchant) to death with my bare hands was the only way to get satisfaction. The product was simple, didn't contain a PIC or any software so was real easy for anyone to copy. My boss took me aside and basically said "Get over it. It would be two, maybe three years before it would erode significantly into our market share, and by that time we would have another fifty products in the field". A few threatening letters stopped them from using our name and phone number on their counterfeit product, but that's all. Today, there's about six companies that have ripped that product off, fighting amongst themselves for an ever decreasing market share. I'm happy in the knowledge I had exclusivity in the marketplace (and made good money) for almost three years before the product was copied. We ceased production last year, and yes in the interim we put around fifty new products into the field. So the advice here is not to waste your time or money on Litigation, but move on and do what you're good at.

[Ioannis]

Just out of curiosity, what was your copied product about Melanie?

And after all, using your phone number could get you in touch with a new client! (Hopefully).

Ioannis

[Melanie]

It was a safety device for commercial Boilers. What's annoying is that the market really didn't exist before we invented the product. When we launched ours www.k3planet.com/Datasheet-9934-2.pdf suddenly everybody wanted one, and in so doing created a whole new market... then about three years in the copies started...

I shouldn't really complain, I earned good Royalty on each one, and over 300,000 were made before we stopped production. It's just when you're on a winner (simple product, easily made, one unskilled person could assemble more than 100 an hour) , you want it to go on forever...

[Melanie]

Great product Tony. Wish you every success. Even I'd have a couple on my desk just for entertainment... (right now I've a "Sunshine Buddy")...

[Toymaker]

Hi

I am a toy inventor and have licensed 35 toy game and gift items across the world.

We too have had 3 concepts/designed ripped off (one making millions of dollars), it's horrendous when this happens, you never get over it! The trick some player's use to do this is beautifully simple, especially those that will not sign off your NDA (Non Disclosure Agreement), and attitudes can be that if you want to present items to them it's on their terms. Now when they see something they like, very often you get "we are working on something similar", because by then they have seen your concept sheets and design's - it can then be a couple of years later that you find they are bringing the exact same thing out to the general market. In our case they were exact copies of what our detailed concept sheets! There is nothing you can do about it, except never present to these companies again. You have to learn by experience who are the 'good guys' to take concepts to.

You have to keep trying and eventually something does get through. We currently have a product that we invented here in the UK (called Cube World) that is starting to sell all across the world. The product is shown beautifully in the US TV advert shown on Firebox.com it can be seen on:-

http://www.firebox.com/index.html?di...oduct&pid=1201

Best Regards

Tony

Conceptioneering Ltd - Inventors of the award winning CUBE WORLD - Visit: http://radicagames.com/cubeworld/index.php
To see Product Innovation - visit our website at www.conceptioneering.co.uk