I know many people want to apply for a patent because they have an idea they think will make millions. I obviously would do research and market testing before even considering a patent. I just thought of this the other day and figured there would be some people here that have been through the process before.
As for having IP when looking for investors - I do not know much about this. On a side note, I do watch Shark Tank though and that seems to be one of the first questions out of their mouths as investors about any interesting product so I do not see why you would not want to patent what you think would be a solid product after doing your research.
I understand what you mean with China knock offs, lawyer fees defending it and what not, but if the patent were to be approved and the product intrigued investors and smart money, you would want to quickly take the market as fast as possible anyways and have contracts in place before these guys knock it off. I was thinking more of a licensing route than retailing the product myself, but either way could work.
After searching through many similar patents in Google it seems other people already have the same or similar idea yet I can't find any solid product which probably either means everyone is doing it wrong or the idea won't work for reasons I have not really thought of yet since I really haven't thought about it all tbh. Interesting discussion here though...
As for having IP when looking for investors - I do not know much about this. On a side note, I do watch Shark Tank though and that seems to be one of the first questions out of their mouths as investors about any interesting product so I do not see why you would not want to patent what you think would be a solid product after doing your research.
I understand what you mean with China knock offs, lawyer fees defending it and what not, but if the patent were to be approved and the product intrigued investors and smart money, you would want to quickly take the market as fast as possible anyways and have contracts in place before these guys knock it off. I was thinking more of a licensing route than retailing the product myself, but either way could work.
After searching through many similar patents in Google it seems other people already have the same or similar idea yet I can't find any solid product which probably either means everyone is doing it wrong or the idea won't work for reasons I have not really thought of yet since I really haven't thought about it all tbh. Interesting discussion here though...