I have an idea for a new invention...

[Gonzo]

anyone know how to get the ball rolling on it? Its an idea. Its simple. I think it would be popular. Do I actually have to make this myself? or can I submit the idea to companies? If you guys want to know what it is let me know. I would love your thoughts on it.

 

[JetBlack]

Call a patent attorney. It can be expensive, but worth it. Do *not* take the idea to any company, not even an "idea submission corporation". There is nothing stopping them from patenting your idea.

If you tell me about your idea and I beat you to the patent office, I get the patent.

Here's an example:

You know those glass needles you see, on the news, that inject into cells?

My embryology teacher, in college has the patent for that.

HE DID NOT INVENT IT!

A competitor was gloating, at a party about how he made them by teasing out tubes of glass, until they got so thin they broke. Then they were small enough to inject human eggs, with DNA, from sperm. Sort of a "Neeter neeter neeter, I invented it and you didn't, ha ha." sort of thing. The next morning, my teacher submitted his patent application for that device and now the other guy can't use it without buying it from his nemesis!

I see your neeter and raise you a nanny nanny boo boo.

 

[Gonzo]

wow! So I just need to submit the idea for a patent?

 

[JetBlack]

If you find a market for your product, the best thing, in the world, is to have someone manufacture it for you (machine shops can do this). Get quotes from several, in your town, with how much production, they can "guarantee" (stuff breaks, people get sick, etc.. You can't ever assure someone any number of parts all the time).

It's best if they make it, deliver it to you and you deliver it to your customers. You are the middle man that cannot be cut out because you have the patent. No one can build and sell those parts without your written consent. All you do is ship your stuff out and make the money. Let your vendor (the machine shop) take the losses and headaches of broken tools, bad parts, etc..

If you take your idea to a shop, without a patent, and have them build it, the shop will patent it and you cannot stop them from selling it without a non-competition agreement. If the shop does a bad job, you can't go somewhere else and have it made, because they have the patent. If production needs become huge, you can take your patented idea to 10 shops and have them build the parts anywhere you want.

 

[Miltonchix]

PLEEAASSEE be careful WHOM you contact/show/tell about it!! A friend and I learned the hard way.
Before you show or tell make EVERYONE sign a non-disclosure agreement and have it witnessed, notorized and carved in stone or someone WILL steal your idea.
The ones that advertise on TV, RUN from.
I haven't visited their website in quite some time but there is a group that will present YOU with a non-disclosure before they will let you show them YOUR idea. Good people.
They evaluate it, if its feasible/workable/sellable they will do the product development, marketing etc. (for a percentage of course, but a reasonble one)
I hope I get it right, but I'm pretty sure it is: bigideagroup.net
GOOD LUCK WITH IT!! Get rich and make jobs!!

 

[JetBlack]

Quote:
A patent attorney will do a search to make sure there is not already a patent for what you are trying to patent. Your thing doesn't even need to work, to be patented.

Magic perpetual motion machine? Sure you can patent that. As long as someone else didn't already patent it.

 

[Gonzo]

Thanks everyone! I wasn't sure how to start with it.

 

[Miltonchix]

My brother and his friend lost a patent to an unscrupulous machine shop. Their prototype was actually siezed by the IRS when they raided the machine shop. My brother had absolutely NO recourse. It was the IRS after all.

 

[JetBlack]

Quote:
Our shop has the patents to several of our customer's parts. They tell us to make "something that will do this and that" so we do and patent it. It's funny when the customer later asks us to do something immoral or illegal (like pay labor below minimum wage or send the work to a 3rd world country to increase profits) and we say no. "Well we'll pull our parts and give them to another manufacturer." Yeah, good luck with that. We have the patent. They cannot make those parts elsewhere.

To the OP, if you build a working prototype and make the patent from that, it will speed you along a lot. You can patent the whole machine and each part that goes in it. If you bought parts that are in it, see if they are patented. If they are, you cannot manufacture them yourself. You have to find a supplier for those parts.

 

[ChooksChick]

Quote:
Write out the idea in the greatest detail you can, draw sketches, etc., and send it to yourself SEALED, CERTIFIED or FEDEX, etc. Leave it sealed with the plastic certification/address label across the seal- SOMETHING so you could show down the line the date you had the idea. send it to yourself and file it away, sealed.

I was told by a patent atty this is a way to show you came up with it first that MAY hold up in court.