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Has anyone sold a design?
7

Has anyone sold a design?

Has anyone sold a design?

(OP)
I have an idea that works well in my CAD model and could be very helpful to others.  I recognize working on paper means nothing if it doesnt work after being fabricated.  

I can have prototypes built but the cost will start to add up during the testing stage and having numerious prototypes fabricated to work out the unforseen bugs.  Another option is to prepare a presentation and attempt to sell the design/concept to a company.

Has anyone taken an idea from a design in their head to something on a shelf at a store?  Has anyone sold an idea?  What are some pitfalls in the process?  What are some ways to communicate with the appropriate department at a larger company.  I doubt you can just call the main 800 number and say you have an idea.

Thanks
 

RE: Has anyone sold a design?

forum784: Engineer Business Practices and Issues might be worth a look, at least some aspects of your situation are likely to have been discussed before.

I just emailed my Brother In Law who works for an energy company one of my bright ideas, they weren't interested/already had something similar.  Or at least, that's what he told mewinky smile.

Posting guidelines FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm? (probably not aimed specifically at you)
What is Engineering anyway: FAQ1088-1484: In layman terms, what is "engineering"?

RE: Has anyone sold a design?

TXMEEN,

Unless you have some significant financial resources at your disposal, your only realistic option is to secure your idea with one or more patents, and then sell or license rights to that intellectual property.  Bringing even a simple product to market will require you to spend huge amounts of cash, and that cash will be tied up for a long period of time.  

You can get 12 months of protection with a provisional US patent filing that costs a couple hundred bucks and can easily be filed on your own. However, you'll likely want to have a patent attorney prepare the filing of any formal patents, and each one will run you something like 5 to 10 thousand dollars in attorney costs and filing fees here in the US. If you want foreign patent protection, it can easily cost you several times that amount.

Once you have some IP protection in place, you'll want to draft a non-disclosure agreement for any interested parties to sign before discussing your idea with them.

Many large companies have formal idea submission processes in place.  Here's one for Ford .

Good luck.  Hope that helped.
Terry

RE: Has anyone sold a design?

2
I helped a guy get his product market-ready.  Took the stupid out of his design; drew up everything; found trustworthy suppliers that would work with a little guy.  Then I watched him unravel and scare away all of his investors.

RE: Has anyone sold a design?

There are also marketing companies, ala "Pitchmen" who specialize in direct TV marketing, and the have associated companies that can front the actual production/product readiness aspect.

TTFN

FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies

RE: Has anyone sold a design?

large companies tend to not buy ideas, they buy companies with IP.  So if you're idea is more of a huge scale, start a company and generate the IP.

You can raise VC money, but everyone I've talked to says you are best off going in with a working prototype.

The way I see it, you either develop the prototype with your own cash, or get some angel investors (family, friends, etc.)

Chris Loughnane - Product Design

http://www.pdnotebook.com
http://www.twitter.com/DesignNotebook
 

RE: Has anyone sold a design?

One thing I see time and time again is brilliant inventors who don't grasp the basic mechanics of investment capital.  Investors are not giving you money out of the goodness of their hearts or because they believe in you.  They're looking for a return.

Most venture capitalists are going to want a share that gives them a decent return on their capital (don't even think in terms of passbook savings accounts).  Five or ten percent is not the number.  They will also want some control, especially if you don't have a track record of running successful businesses.

 

RE: Has anyone sold a design?

First: Make sure your idea isn't already patented.  Without even knowing what it is your working on I'd bet my life savings that someone has already patented it.  USPTO.gov is you're friend (assuming you're in the USA).  Spend a day or so searching.

Second: If by some miracle it's not already patented, talk to a lawyer about filing a provisional and have him prepare an NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) for you.  Have anyone you talk to about the invention sign an NDA.

Third: If you see a company advertise invention commercialization on TV, it's probably a fraud.  Those companies don't care if your ideas are good, they want to sell you worthless patent searches and marketing studies.

Forth: Good ideas are worth a whole lot less than most people think.  You need to put together a business plan/value proposition to show that your idea is worth developing.  You'll need to be brutally honest with this assessment.

Fifth: Approach companies/investors with your proposition and be happy if you end up with enough money to cover your legal costs.

RE: Has anyone sold a design?

I have licensed a couple chemical processes but only after I invented them and put them into production.   I came nowhere near recovering my investment.

Patents are very expensive, take years and less than 1% of them are profitable.  Then, once you get one, you have to defend it.  

Tom   
 

Thomas J. Walz
Carbide Processors, Inc.
www.carbideprocessors.com

Good engineering starts with a Grainger Catalog.    

RE: Has anyone sold a design?

I would pretty much agree with the above a patent and working prototype will be about the minimum requirement and even then most potential investors will want to see a route to market, all of this takes a great deal of time and money.

You might find this useful and interesting.
 

RE: Has anyone sold a design?

(OP)
I think my idea is prety good but I am also aware of the reality that just because you are excited about it doesn't really mean anyone else will be.  I am sure there are a LOT of people out there who spend $15-$30k on a product to get it going only to have it flop.

So when you see really creative and useful gadget at a store, would it be safe to say that for the most part they came from a company that was already established or from that one in a million individual who took the financial risk and it wound up paying off?

RE: Has anyone sold a design?

Everyone has a million dollar idea; most only cost a million to find there a flop.

Many cool items you see in stores are ideas that were patented and someone tried to sell but did not become popular until after the patent expired. Markets adopt new ideas slowly and in some cases begrudging.

A star for tomwalz. I only have one patent out of two applications, neither of these products have been winners so far. The products I've developed that were not patented have been more profitable and easier to market as they are incremental improvements.

Ed Danzer
www.danzcoinc.com
www.dehyds.com

RE: Has anyone sold a design?

Many companies patent thouands of things, only a few of them are actually worth anything.  Conversely, there are companies that patented things, made money, and then had their patents nullified in court.  The entire process is a crapshoot, no company has the inside track on being successful.  That said, a larger company has the wherewithal to withstand flops, and to spend the money to market test their products before investing gobs on production.

You might want to view old episodes of the show "Pitchmen," which gives you an excellent view of what the small inventor goes through.  In the show, they had a couple of instances where certain companies would take on ideas, assuming they passed the giggle test first, and then would develop it further, do testing, do market evaluations, etc., before going with a direct marketing approach.  Clearly, however, less than 1 in 10 inventors make it to that stage.

If you attempt to do it yourself, you will most likely lose gobs of money.  Even with patent protection, there would be strong likelihood that someone will copy your product and flood the market.  A large marketing company can get the product out quicker, and to more markets than you can yourself.

TTFN

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RE: Has anyone sold a design?

I agree that patents are generally more trouble than they're worth, but without one you will not be able to license a purely mechanical invention.  Software code and industrial design can be protected by copyright, brands can be protected by trademarks and other inventions can be protected by trade secrets, but with a mechanical invention there's nothing to keep someone from legally reverse engineering the product other than a utility patent.

Patents are like real-estate.  A very special few are lakefront lots with mountain views and most of the others are situated next to superfund sites, but without the deed you've got nothing to lease.

RE: Has anyone sold a design?

Check out fastcap.com

Best way to get money for your idea if it could apply to cabinet making.  

tom

Thomas J. Walz
Carbide Processors, Inc.
www.carbideprocessors.com

Good engineering starts with a Grainger Catalog.    

RE: Has anyone sold a design?

When pitchmen get involved in the process, like salesmen, the product and it's attrributes get distorted, overrated and overblown, so things get sticky for the inventor.

Eliminate the pitchmen and the sticky goes away.  

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering
Motto:  KISS
Motivation:  Don't ask

RE: Has anyone sold a design?

Yes I did, but then deal was cancelled.

Partner and I designed a game.  We prototyped everything including injection mold tooling for components, all the parts, printing, instruction manual, packaging, prototyped in store point of purchase displays, complete costed BOM with vendors, drawing package, etc.  Video taped kids playing the game.  A complete package.

Took it to Big Toy Co.  They agreed to purchase, we did some negotiating, scheduled second meeting with other representatives.  In between meetings they received new directive that all new product introduction must be endorsed by, with, and include certain TV show animated characters.

Meeting over, no deal.

RE: Has anyone sold a design?

No, never sold a "design", but have had plenty of stuff stolen, or given it away to customers or employers over the years.  In fact, a former colleague's brilliant invention patented by a former employer is about to expire, and I'm looking forward to that- the current owner of that patent doesn't realize its value and in fact may have forgotten that they own it at all.

This history of being ripped off actually solidified some business for me recently- a prospective client and I were both ripped off by the same major international company.  Now we're blood brothers!  Some companies realize that to develop new technology you need scientists, engineers, laboratories etc. AND lawyers, whereas to rip off somebody else who has already developed a technology, all you need are lawyers!

Patents are expensive and hard to defend (meaning both time and money for lawyers and others).  

The most effective use for patents I'm seeing at present is using them as a means to legitimize utter hokum- bogus stuff that is used to scam investors out of their money. No need to "defend" a patent on something that doesn't work, so no cost there.  No need to spend a lot of money writing it either, since you don't care to defend it. But dumb people see patents as proof of concept, rather than merely a document that gives the owner the legal right to exclusively manufacture the thing that doesn't work for the next 20 years.  And as P.T. Barnum said, "Nobody ever lost money underestimating the intelligence of the general public"!

RE: Has anyone sold a design?

We have and will continue to pursue patents when we think it is to our advantage. The issue for us is that we are a very small business which will make defending our patents difficult. Our lawyers are willing to pursue infringment cases based on winning. Think "taco bell dog". We have great lawyers.

We are developing what we think is a great technology now. The biggest problem we have run into is that when we approach a large company where we think it is a natural fit the concern is "technology taint". What if they are working on something even remotely similar? Again, think "taco bell dog". They will not sign NDAs. They will only discuss public (patented) information. The technology does not have value to them if it is not already protected and public.

As for investors, Chris has it right on. VC won't be interested until there is an established business with real clients and cash flow. Nobody invests in ideas. If you have a great idea I would suggest reading "The Art of the Start" by Guy Kawasaki and then doing a search for local start-up support groups. In west Michigan an example would be Innovation Works through the Right Place program.

http://www.rightplace.org/Innovation-Works.aspx

Good Luck.

Harold
SW2010 SP1.0 OPW2010 SP1.0 Win XP Pro 2002 SP3
Dell 690, Xeon 5160 @3.00GHz, 3.25GB RAM
nVidia Quadro FX4600
www.lumenflow.com

RE: Has anyone sold a design?

I would suggest you check out a service such as that provided by Trevor Baylis. http://www.trevorbaylisbrands.com/ (or something similar if you're not in th UK). For a very small fee they will evaluate your idea with respect to patent infringement, marketability, manufacturing etc, etc
Well worth a look and they won't disclose it to anyone without your permission.
I think the cost is around £200.....

RE: Has anyone sold a design?

Have you established if there is a Market for your invention?  If not then why bother!

RE: Has anyone sold a design?

(OP)
Good point flexibox.  My idea is more of a safety device for homes/apartments/buildings etc preventing property damage/loss.  It would be a good thing to have but isn't one of those things that you would see and want to buy because it would be fun to have.  

I would imagine it would not be a big seller with consumers at a hardware store at first but would be more valuable to insurance companies who would not have to pay for as much for losses since less damage would occur.

I would imagine making a pitch to an insurance company would be out of the question as they are huge and I am just an individual.  Getting it on the shelf at a hardware store may not drum up enough interest to make the idea profitable after paying for pattent and attorney fees.

RE: Has anyone sold a design?

It's a hard road selling safety.  Check out the Sawstop story.  

We build and sell machine coolant filter units.  The original goal was safer shops.  The attorney convinced us than there was way too much liability in that approach.  Fortunately, by that time, we had enough data to sell them as a time and money saving device.  It is still like trying to convince people to go to the dentist.  

Tom
 

Thomas J. Walz
Carbide Processors, Inc.
www.carbideprocessors.com

Good engineering starts with a Grainger Catalog.    

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