Invention

[jonathan01]

Hello, not sure if this is the right place for this, but I have a pretty good idea for a part that I came up with a while back. It is a part to help with reloading rifle cases. Does anybody know what I would have to do to try and make it to sell. It can be made all on a lathe. How would I go about searching to see if anybody else has something like my part already. I have seached the reloading sections on site like Midway USA and Cabelas and have not seen it, so I don't think it is out there yet. I tried searching how to get a patent, and one minute it seems like it would be easy than the next not so easy. Has anyone made a part for something and started selling it nation wide, local, on the internet,etc. Would I be better off trying to sell it myself or try selling it to say Hornady for 10%-25% of their profit on it.

How are inventions like this handled.

Thanks,
Jonathan

 

[8ntsane]

Where is our gun specialist Tom?
Oh , he will be along, and Im sure he will have advise for you.

 

[12bolts]

Jonathan,
Without knowing what your invention does, its a bit difficult to say whether Hornady, or someone else would be interested.
If you think it is of some value, then a patent would probably be the first step, to protect yourself, and then make a few for sale and set yourself up with a stand at 1) a gunshow, 2) a field day, 3)outdoor activities type display, so you can display the item and show it being used in a practical way. Perhaps there is a inventors program on tv, we have one here in Oz, maybe they can help you at least with the patenting.

Cheers Phil

 

[Rbeckett]

Jonathan,
If you have looked diligently you can use one of the inventions patent attorney services on the net. They will do a search to see if the patent office has anything similar or the same and if not they will start the application process for you. In order to get it done, you need material description, actual mechanical drawing and description of use and operation. Once you have those you contact the service and they will discus the fees and time frame and send you a contract to sign. Most of those services require a clause for them to solely represent you on that particular invention. They will also have some info in there about non-diclosure and infringement. Choose your rep carefully because they have a wide variety of services and a broad fee structure. Hope this helps a bit.
Bob

 

[Charley Davidson]

Just Flood the market, it will get stolen anyway:biggrin:

 

[ScrapMetal]

Where's Tony? I seem to remember him talking about some patents he holds.

-Ron

 

[jonathan01]

Jonathan,
If you have looked diligently you can use one of the inventions patent attorney services on the net. They will do a search to see if the patent office has anything similar or the same and if not they will start the application process for you. In order to get it done, you need material description, actual mechanical drawing and description of use and operation. Once you have those you contact the service and they will discus the fees and time frame and send you a contract to sign. Most of those services require a clause for them to solely represent you on that particular invention. They will also have some info in there about non-diclosure and infringement. Choose your rep carefully because they have a wide variety of services and a broad fee structure. Hope this helps a bit.
Bob

I have looked some, but there are so many of them, I just don't know who to use, or if I could do some of it by my self and save some attorney fee money. Looking at http://www.uspto.gov/inventors/patents.jsp#heading-2 and http://www.uspto.gov/patents/resources/types/utility.jsp#heading-6 , would I file for a provisional application patent, which gives me patent pending, for $125"?", and within 12 months I have to file for a non-provisional utility patent. Would it be a utility or a design? I thought a design at first, but now it might be a utility. If I could fill most of the stuff out that USPTO says I need, than have a patent attorney look at it, that should save me some money. I can make all the drawings and 3D models too. It looks like as far as USOTO fees go I would have to pay $625 to file and application, than if the application passes the patent search if it is accepted, than pay $870 for the Issue fee, than pay the maintenance fees at 3.5, 7.5, and 11.5 years. Which is $565, $1425, and $2365, So for a 20 year patent it would costs me about $6,000 just for patent fees, plus any attorney fees.

 

[Hawkeye]

The thing about patents is that they are only as good as your ability to take an offender to court. If you can't afford the lawyers, it's just paper. There are no patent cops who will protect your interests.

According to the US Patent Office, no one can take out a patent on something that has been published or displayed publicly. As Charley says, flood the market. Become the name that everyone associates with the product. There are a lot of hot tubs out there, but everyone knows Jacuzzi.

 

[jonathan01]

The thing about patents is that they are only as good as your ability to take an offender to court. If you can't afford the lawyers, it's just paper. There are no patent cops who will protect your interests.

According to the US Patent Office, no one can take out a patent on something that has been published or displayed publicly. As Charley says, flood the market. Become the name that everyone associates with the product. There are a lot of hot tubs out there, but everyone knows Jacuzzi.

If someone was to try to get a patent on something that I had a patent on than has would get declined, but if he just makes it and starts selling it without trying to get a patent, than yes it would be up to me to bring he to court. Which unless I made a lot of money off of the part, than I would not have the money to afford the lawers. But, If I didn't make much money off of the part than why should I care if he started trying to sell them.

The part I am thinking of making to sell, is more of an attachment for a tool that all the reloading companies made. I might just have to the threads or something to fit the other companies versions of the tool. Mine will be made to fit the Hornady version of the tool at first, because that is the version that I own.

 

[R.G.]

This issue comes up a lot in my day job (electronics).

A patent is a piece of paper from the government that says "you can sue anyone who makes and sells this but you, and the judge and jury will hold up for you". It is, as noted, 100% up to you to fund the legal process to get to a judgement for you. The USA legal system holds very strongly that everyone pays their own legal bills, win or lose. And justice is expensive.

One example that's worth remembering is intermittent windshield wipers. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Kearns. The guy invented intermittent windshield wipers, obtained a patent in 1967. He tried to license this to the big three car makers, all of whom turned him down, and then just started selling intermittents on their cars in 1969. He sued and won.

It took 21 years. A jury finally heard the case against Ford in 1990, and ruled for Kearns. Another ruled against Chrysler in 1992, which was appealed eventually to the Supreme Court in 1995. He got $18M from Ford and $30M from Chrysler, after spending $10M in his own legal fees. He had to put portions of his eventual settlement out to investors to keep paying the legal fees to keep up in court. If at any time he had not been able to pay his legal team, the case would have gone away and the guys with the most lawyers would have won.

It's a truism that you cannot own something you can't defend. If you can't defend it, the Big Boys take it away from you. Kearns is a very smart - and lucky - guy to have been able to prevail in over two decades of legal battles.

The real answer is to outrun them. As noted earlier, make them, get them out there. This prevents someone else from having a valid patent and keeping YOU from making them.