Inventions- anyone ever successfuly dealt with one of those invention firms?

bizzykehl

bizzykehl

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Sep 9, 2008
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Long story short, I've got a few 'inventions' I've drawn up over the last few years or so, and I'm looking to get them potentially made into a real product with distribution. I know there are a ton of those "bring us your invention" houses but I'm fairly sure the majority are just scams. Anyone ever dealt with any of these guys? What's the story?


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idk, I kinda figured they were all scams considering you have to pay upfront with no guarantee of them doing anything for you - ( and i'd probably mail a copy of your invention to yourself beforehand so you have a dated copy to prove you came up with it ) but thanks for those awesome gravity defying titttays :)
 
Niceeee tits. personally, i wouldn't go near any of those companies for fear of being ripped off.

Some good news though is that I did a bunch of product design in college and we used to regularly take random peoples inventions/ideas and try to create prototypes for them for our projects (i went to u of mich engineering). if i were you i'd try to find something along those lines. might be tougher, but you aren't gonna get ideas stolen.

Another option is to patent your shit and any realistic variations before you submit it to them, but that takes time and $$.
 
Best bet is to patent the idea. Cost a fair amount of coin, but once you have that it is pretty hard to get it ripped off.

I wouldn't use one of those companies either.
 
OP, those invention places work as brokers, which I'm sure you knew.

Generally it's just not worth it. Here's something you should check out instead, this guy has a sick fucking method IMO and I'm currently using it myself:

Roger Brown :: Author & Inventor. Where the Gears are Always Turning!!

I'd never use a broker to get my invention out there, I'd just recommend doing what Roger Brown did, shit obviously works.
 
I went to one of those damn invention shows in Pittsburgh PA one time. I wrote some bullshit code for some old guy that wanted to sell some circuit board he had for cameras. Some emergency surveillance recording shit... You get all these sneaky fucks that walk around trying to get as much info out of you as possible and crawl up in the invention's ass to look at it from the inside. Then if they can't figure it out they go tell one of their buddies to go talk to you too.

Then a few run around trying to sell you pipe dreams for signing s deal with them...

If they can get your product on the market you get something...if they can get such and such company to do it that is. If they can't then they can get such and such other company to do it and fuck you in the ass and pay you nothing.

So you have to watch it.
 
iF you're in the us, first step search the patents to see if its already been patented.

Google Patents

If you are serious go see a patent attorney for a consultation.

Getting anything patent is expensive.

Honestly if you ask me, stop wasting your time and make the actual product.

Unless you want to be a patent troll, in that case, learn the process and do it yourself, its difficult but doable.

Google is your friend
 
If you have something you truly believe in, I think a patent is the place to start.

Be sure to check around, lots of bs/scams in that area too.

(but I have an ebook if interested)
 
I worked a product through getting patented once, had molds made, prototypes and first production run.

Google patents and USPTO.GOV can help you search to see if there is any prior art. I've heard those "bring us your invention" places are mostly scams. We used a cheaper patent lawyer and had the whole thing done for 1-2k. The drawings were provided by us in this case which made it less expensive. Really, we could have just done the whole thing ourselves and it would have only cost us the government filing fees. (~$300 range?) Took about 2 years to get the patent.

In the meantime, we had huge competitors coming out with similar products but just enough different. We didn't have the capital to fight the fight back then. Getting a patent is only as good as how well you think you will be able to defend it. (So be specific with what you are patenting. If you have a few novel ideas, maybe file multiple patents.)

Another cheap thing you can do while you are getting the patent together is put all your designs together, put it in an envelope, bring it down to the post office and have them stamp the seal with the date. That way if anyone tries to say they patented it first in the meantime, you have something with a date on it that proves you thought of it on X date. Obviously never open it unless you need to in court or something but just another thought.
 
DevMang said:
That way if anyone tries to say they patented it first in the meantime, you have something with a date on it that proves you thought of it on X date. Obviously never open it unless you need to in court or something but just another thought.
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Great idea but I bet it has a .001% of ever holding up in court. Judge would be like "Fuck you, it still isn't patented."
 
EricVonDoobie said:
Great idea but I bet it has a .001% of ever holding up in court. Judge would be like "Fuck you, it still isn't patented."
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Yeah, probably right. You should get the bulk of the idea written up and filed if you think someone might be on your heals. This is the provisional patent. It will give you patent pending protection for a year so you can get everything together and file your final patent.
 
DevMang said:
Yeah, probably right. You should get the bulk of the idea written up and filed if you think someone might be on your heals. This is the provisional patent. It will give you patent pending protection for a year so you can get everything together and file your final patent.
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True, but I propose another solution: if you suspect someone is close behind you or trying to patent the same idea, come up with a new one. There's no point in knowingly competing with another person for what is most likely a mediocre idea (even if you think it's the shit). I've had to do this a few times myself.
 
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