How to Approach Manufacturers with a Product Idea

[okgb]

Watch shark tank or Dragon's  Den 
no one's interested unless you can show them how they can make money off of it
with a sales record to back it up!  unless it's such a no brainer wide margin idea

just like a good song, got a pretty face to sell it ?
and like allot of good music , no one may ever see or hear it
I hope you win the lottery or it's not wasted, good luck!

 

[emrr]

Sorta like getting a record deal in the old days.  Good luck!  I have a half dozen prototypes on the bench here that could all go to market, who knows if they will ever see the light of day.  I don't want to be a sales guy, and I'm pretty busy with recording and tech already.  Catch-22. 

 

[ruffrecords]

Many years ago, as a means of protecting a design, some manufacturers resorted to scraping the printing off chips and/or potting their design in tough resin. If your design is purely analogue, that is still about the cheapest way to try to keep it secret. If it is digital or logic the you can use a micro or FPGA with the ability to lock the code. The only way to read it then would be to deconstruct the chip - a very expensive process.

Cheers

Ian

 

[emrr]

pay extra for PCB's of more than 2 layers so traces are hidden. 

 

[okgb]

people have gotten skilled at taking epoxy off , 4 layer board sounds better
Do people X-ray them ?  how much better the audio world could be if there weren't thief's!

 

[micaddict]

Yes, it starts with a brilliant idea, of course.
And getting a patent can be wise.

But what it really takes IMO is this:

-belief
-guts (step right to the CEO if need be; he/she is not worthier than you are)
-persuasiveness
-flair (the big one IMO)
-perseverance
-perseverance
-perseverance

Did I mention perseverance?

 

[mjrippe]

I appreciate all the input folks.  This is a small, mechanical, utility item that happens to be audio related.  No chips, PCBs, or big $.  Would likely sell for under $20.  Not hoping to get rich off it, but not looking to give it away either.

 

[ruffrecords]

I appreciate all the input folks.  This is a small, mechanical, utility item that happens to be audio related.  No chips, PCBs, or big $.  Would likely sell for under $20.  Not hoping to get rich off it, but not looking to give it away either.

If you have a really neat solution that would be hard to achieve as cost effectively any other way, then your best bet is to obtain a design registration for it. This recognises that particular embodiment as your work and gives you copyright protection for it. It is a lot easier to sue for copyright infringement (and a lot easier to prove) than it is for a patent infringement.

P.S. it is called design registration here in the UK. it might be called something different where you are.

Cheers

Ian

Cheers

Ian

 

[benb]

P.S. it is called design registration here in the UK. it might be called something different where you are.

I'm not sure I understand what design registration is, or if there's something in the USA that's equivalent. There's design patent (as opposed to utility patent), trademark, trade dress and maybe a few other things, but these only protect shapes (like a Coke bottle), color schemes and such - none of those do anything to protect actual functionality. As far as I know, only a utility patent does that.

There's also copyright, but that's handled by a separate US government entity from the USPTO, and copyright has lots of its own arcane rules, and generally doesn't apply to a manufactured object.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_patent

 

[ruffrecords]

I'm not sure I understand what design registration is, or if there's something in the USA that's equivalent. There's design patent (as opposed to utility patent), trademark, trade dress and maybe a few other things, but these only protect shapes (like a Coke bottle), color schemes and such - none of those do anything to protect actual functionality. As far as I know, only a utility patent does that.

There's also copyright, but that's handled by a separate US government entity from the USPTO, and copyright has lots of its own arcane rules, and generally doesn't apply to a manufactured object.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_patent

I think they are both the same. Design registration creates a registered design which the wiki article refers to. Here's the UK gov page about it:

https://www.gov.uk/register-a-design/check-if-you-can-register-your-design

Cheers

Ian