I have an invention. At least that is what I call it.

Erik · Last edited by Erik on May 10, 2006 12:28 pm; edited 1 time in total

I have an item that I've been working on for just under a month now. I have to be tight lipped about it, under the reccomendation of my Lawyer, and he said it is less of an 'invention' and more of a product that could warrant a design patent which could cut me royalties if the thing worked out.

Now, when I say "working on it" - I have a Web site, developed several prototypes, some Marketing plans, and I have researched and even filled out the provisional Patent Pending forms from the US Patent Office and oh what a joy were those to complete!

Now I am in the stage of developing a "show ready" prototype. When I had the idea, I built this thing immediately for my own use, because I simply thought of it and wanted it. What I built for myself was somewhat rudimentary, but now I want to build upon the concept with a nicer prototype that I could potentially take with me to any "presentations" that I am able to score. I also want to make this show-ready one for my Plan B - discussed below. Plan A is that some company says "Holy Cornholio Erik, you are a GENIUS!" And then they hand me fists of cash and pay off my boat for me and tell me to move to a larger house because my wife and I are going to be rich now.

Plan B:
Since 'luck', lately for me, hasn't been so spiffy, what do you suppose would be my next steps... when I get the 'no' from Sharper Image, SkyMall and Brookstone (the places I picture this thing being sold). Incidentally, I would have bought it if it existed. It dosen't.

The way I see it, I could build the production versions of this thing myself in my spare time and then forward-sell the thing by 10-15 units and just start doing what I can.

I realize this is a wheelbarrel load of info, but I think the basic question I want to ask is - in your opinions, should I fully exhaust the royalty option before I even breathe a word of this publicly on eBay, here and elsewhere?

Wakebrad · Ladies Man Joined: 11 Dec 2003 Posts: 12257 City: Dallas

Erik · Posted: May 10, 2006 1:00 pm Post subject:

Wakebrad - this is just the kind of feedback I am looking for.

Thanks!

Wakebrad · Ladies Man Joined: 11 Dec 2003 Posts: 12257 City: Dallas

Props for taking this so far. After my Sr. design project in college we thought about trying to market our product to those same groups.

We made a voice activated atomic alarm clock that interfaced with X10 and could turn on any electronic device in the power grid (house or office).

Here's the project website. It has a pictures link for the final product. It was a huge success.

http://www.tristarturbine.com/wakebrad/405/

After we all graduated we never took the initiative to turn it into a sell-able product or maket the ideas to those stores. It's too late now. I'm sure there are already better and cheaper alternatives than our design.