I just got a patent now what...........

Well Ive been working on this new idea/patent for a while now.  I got the patent pending a few weeks ago, booked the namm booth for Jan 2011.  Im going there to sell the patent for the product.  Ive seen many people do this, one being the Muse retceptor which I met the guy at AES 2001 or so in Los Angeles.  Anyways I have the product I have 2 pending magazine reviews on the product (in major magazines).  

My question is what do it do now?  When I go to NAMM do I say its for sale at "such and such price" or do I do it "Ebay" and say bidding is open, highest bidder wins...,  Im sort of lost here.  I know there's many poeple here that have done this and been through it.

By the way its a drum product, Im a recording engineer and own a studio.  So i dont really have interest in starting a company and producing the product.  I would rather take the money and be done with it.  Ive heard many different thing about selling it.  One being flat sell,  one being flat sell with commission (per cost percentage), or a higher percentage with no up front money.

Thanks.

Brian

I don't think there are any hard and fast rules here.

In my limited experience with patents (as part of a research group looking at chemical processes), generally getting a patent did not automatically mean that companies would be queueing up to put it into practice.

Often we would find that only one company would be interested so no bidding war would ensue. More often nobody was interested, and the patents were never exploited. In ten years I saw maybe fifty or a hundred patents go through the department, and probably only one or two made any real money for the inventors. Normally a small percentage would be paid, but sometimes a company would buy up a patent in the interest of preventing the opposition from doing the same. In those situations the process rarely went to production.

The big winners of course were the patent lawyers...

Anyway, I think you just have to play it by ear. I would test the water at NAMM and try to see what the interest level is. If you get more than a couple of interested parties then you're in a good position, and you should probably seek professional guidance before you do any hard and fast deal!

Good luck with it!

Patent Pending gives you 12 months on the open market before you need to move further along the process to protect and obtain your 'patent' otherwise it becomes fair game and unenforceable.

clock is ticking......

I would NOT openly disclose a cost, or an approach.

Silent bidding/discussion would be the way to go.

Either make them state their first position (Which will always be low) or WAY OVERSTATE yours, and go from there.

A professional working prototype you can demonstrate, with retail packaging, is going to help your cause dramatically.

Do you have worldwide protection? If not then do not disclose it in such events that it will be exposed to the manufacturers from countries that you don't have protection.

Do not have reviews in magazines unless you have the product in the market, ready and available.

Otherwise your product will be knocked before you even finished your trade show.

Target companies (in countries that your product is protected) to which your product might be of interest. Get your lawyer to draw up a confidentiality agreement. Before you talk to anybody get them sign the agreement, then show them what you've got.

Unless you have a ground breaking technology nobody will get into bidding wars. In contrary it will put them off.

First NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) is a trade show basically for music industry manufacturers (who take booths) to sell their products to dealers, who visit the show to see what's new and buy stuff for the next year.

Manufacturers will not be there looking for inventors, they will be busy in selling mode. I wouldn't expect a warm reception cold calling manufacturer's booths, while it will be convenient to meet with them during the several days long show, if you have prearranged meetings set up. If you need space to demo your invention to manufacturers, you might be better served to do that privately off the show floor, if you can drag them away. Major manufacturers will have offices built into their booths where you can meet privately.

Dealers may be interested if you have product ready to deliver in the next few months. Unless you have a plan for managing dealer distribution, and product to sell, I expect a booth at NAMM is not your best use of capital (Note I sell a drum related product and do not attend NAMM, mainly because I have no interest in music store distribution. I have taken small booths at a few PASICs when I was starting out. FWIW the major industry show for drummers is PASIC and you might be better received there, while PASIC isn't held in your backyard like NAMM. 

Patent Pending, as others have noted, only puts the world on notice that you "intend" to patent your invention, you still need to convince the examiners that it is novel. The patent office is less concerned with wether it is a good idea or not, only that it hasn't been done before. Note: the 12 month publication clock is only for domestic protection, for international patents there are other time frame criteria, and more expenses, IIRC for EURO zone patents you must file prior to publication. There are also differences in how priority is determined. 

I am not really clear about what you mean by obtaining a "patent pending". Anybody can print patent pending on the back of a product. The time frame math is that you have 12 months from publication, to file a formal patent application. Shipping, selling, showing at a trade show, all count as publication. If you publish, and then don't file a proper patent application within 12 months, your invention becomes public domain. 

In addition, I wouldn't expect a manufacturer to take you seriously if you don't have an issued patent. Confidential Disclosure documents are a PIA for everybody involved. If i was a manufacturer talking to an independent party with unprotected technology, why should I agree to pay for, what will be free to all to copy.

For a few years I was one of those guys reviewing outside ideas submitted to a decent sized company, and I never saw an idea worth pursuing, while I concede some NIH bias. I have even signed a few confidential disclosure documents as favors to friends of friends, and every idea submitted to me personally to review was IMO worthless.

Good luck... Patents can be expensive and the vast majority expire as little more than expensive wall paper (I had a few like that, thankfully not all).

JR

Going through the process of filing a provisional patent application and getting the right to place "Patent Pending" on your invention as explained here:

http://www.uspto.gov/patents/resources/types/provapp.jsp

does have one major benefit. If you follow the claims rules you can effectively extend the patent protection for your product from twenty years to twenty-one years, certainly worth the filing fee.

When you market the patent, licenses are the way to go, exclusive and non-exclusive. If its the 3D holoprojector you might go with an exclusive license to Sony. If its the 99% efficient DC motor for electric cars, you might want to license it to several manufacturers with a non-exclusive license.

If its a million dollar application, seriously look into filing applications in other countries, too. Minimally France, GB and Japan. China is a problem. They are claiming to tighten up protection but the level varies with the current administration.

If anything consumer product and technology cycles are getting shorter to the point that a patent may not issue before the product is already on it's next generation. I have read some discussion of using provisional applications in lieu of full patent filings in fast changing technology sectors. Of course a truly important technology breakthrough deserves a full patent. The provisional strategy to gain time, may be useful if the development process is expected to take years so you can lock in the earlier priority, without starting the patent clock for some 12 months.

There are other techniques to extend US protection, like continuation filings of additional claims arguments tacked onto an original filing (before it issues) that effectively hold open an application, and can also extend the protection date range, but that is esoteric inside baseball and not really important for this discussion, IMO.

The provisional patent filing is a double edged sword, while it can buy you 12 months, your following real patent application is dependent somewhat on the provisional filing content.

I don't know if this is what the OP is actually doing but hopefully he has actual legal advice, and in not making decisions based on some plonker on the internet (me), or one of those invention mills, that remind me of the shady recording studios promising to make people into stars by cutting a demo record.

JR