Legalities of selling products to other companies

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  • wroughtnharv
    Senior Member
    • Sep 2006
    • 326

    #16
    I'm a believer. I'm one of those guys who always buys one lottery ticket because I believe someone will win and I have as much a chance of winning as the next guy.

    That's why I am going for the next idea to be patented. This one I believe can be one of those things that can change the way things are made. It's one of those ideas where me not being as smart as everyone else and seeing things a little differently can pay off.

    One of my problems is I"m not interested in being in business of making and selling things. I want someone else to take my ideas and get very very rich off of them. I want them to get so rich that they can make me rich with a six to ten percent cut of their richiness.

    Before I have the patent on the structure there is no reason for anyone to buy the idea from me. If I didn't get the patent then they can do it for free. But now that I have the patent almost in hand I have something to sell. I have a great product that a company can make and market and not worry about someone copying it because it's patented. They get exclusitivity and I get a small cut. Once again, I hope they get very very rich off of my idea.

    Most patents are about protecting the inventor's company from competition. I'm not one of those types of inventors.
    life is good

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    • alanrockwood
      Member
      • Feb 2010
      • 33

      #17
      It looks like you have already resolved your main question in this case.

      However, let me make one comment. (I am not a lawyer by the way, so do not take this as authoritative legal advice.) It is my understanding that if you are not an employee then US intellectual property law gives the right to the intellectual property to the creator unless there is an agreement that explicitly transfers the intellectual property rights to someone else. For example, if you are an independent contractor that creates intellectual property, then that property belongs to you unless there is a contract that explicitly transfers the intellectual property to someone else, such as the person paying you for the work.

      I will not attempt to discuss the case when someone is an employee.

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      • fjk
        Senior Member
        • Sep 2007
        • 546

        #18
        From what I recall about patents/etc, you guys are right.
        Except that the original poster is in Canada
        Different rules, different system, etc :-)

        Frank

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        • wroughtnharv
          Senior Member
          • Sep 2006
          • 326

          #19
          Originally posted by fjk View Post
          From what I recall about patents/etc, you guys are right.
          Except that the original poster is in Canada
          Different rules, different system, etc :-)

          Frank
          I'll bet it's not that different.

          The reason I say that is I've known quite a few canuckies living in the southwest and them being snowbirds and all.
          life is good

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          • Freelance Fabber
            Member
            • Sep 2009
            • 37

            #20
            Well I'm going to start trying to sift through the candian and US databases and see if I can find a similar device that has already been patented. In the mean time I am going to go around and try to sell my original prototype and see if it looks to be a desirable contraption for anyone (I'll tell them its patent pending. pending on me applying for a patent :P)
            if they seem popular I have to sit down and see how many of these I would have to sell to recoupe the costs of patenting and perhaps tooling to mass produce these things. If it looks viable I will start to look further into patenting my second slightly more complex prototype.

            Thanks again guys, I'll let you know how it goes
            sigpic

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            • 1havnfun
              Senior Member
              • Nov 2008
              • 276

              #21
              Congradulations
              that worked out great
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              • wroughtnharv
                Senior Member
                • Sep 2006
                • 326

                #22
                Originally posted by Freelance Fabber View Post
                Well I'm going to start trying to sift through the candian and US databases and see if I can find a similar device that has already been patented. In the mean time I am going to go around and try to sell my original prototype and see if it looks to be a desirable contraption for anyone (I'll tell them its patent pending. pending on me applying for a patent :P)
                if they seem popular I have to sit down and see how many of these I would have to sell to recoupe the costs of patenting and perhaps tooling to mass produce these things. If it looks viable I will start to look further into patenting my second slightly more complex prototype.

                Thanks again guys, I'll let you know how it goes
                Two things to keep in mind. The most important one is the more you show off your product the more put the ability to patent it at risk. So you need to have anyone that sees what you have sign a confidentiality/non-compete agreement.

                The other thing is patent pending is not unlike the rattle of a rattlesnake. It's a warning that you're prepared to strike if threatened.

                The reason we claim patent pending is to warn others that when they infringe on our idea they're are taking a serious risk. Because if and when we get a patent they are not only susceptible to being sued for infringing but all the profits they made and penalties for doing so.

                If they see your idea and start producing it before you apply for the patent two very bad things happen. First is they can do it with impunity. Second, you can't get a patent.

                Now they publish patent applications. But back in the day they didn't. So one of the games played was keeping the patent pending as long as possible. That way competitors wanting to find another way to skin the cat wouldn't know your claims and risked infringing if they brought out something similar.
                life is good

                Comment

                • c wagner
                  Senior Member
                  • Nov 2007
                  • 1270

                  #23
                  Originally posted by Freelance Fabber View Post
                  Thanks for the replies guys. Especially wroughtn's perspective as a patent holder.

                  Well, I decided to deliver the 2 prototypes that I finished yesterday for final testing by the guys who will be using it. After playing around with the machine a bit, the first thing out of the manager's mouth was " you need to patent that"
                  So we talked about that very thing, and as far as this manager was concerned I completely owned the idea of the machine and they were happy to simply have a working copy to save them the manual backache of doing the task by hand. I even mentioned selling this product to their direct competitors which he thought would be fine.

                  Today was an exciting day, I'm taking several detailed pictures of it tommorow and redoing my drawings on it to at least make it easier for me to reproduce it without much trouble.

                  How much does it cost to patent something harv? I think I might pursue that avenue if other companies show interest in this device.
                  Congrats, that's awesome when everyone is on the same page.
                  Keep us posted on how you make out with this venture.
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                  • Freelance Fabber
                    Member
                    • Sep 2009
                    • 37

                    #24
                    Thanks again harv, yea that was kind of my thoughts on claiming it's 'patent pending'.

                    Given the nature of this device I think I need to show it around a bit to see if there's any interest in it all before I start investing thousands, and years of time on a patent. It's going to be relatively expensive to produce as well so I'm not sure if anyone else would be willing to lay out the cash for this thing.

                    So my thoughts are to produce a few more of these things, a half dozen at the most, then go around localy and guage the response on them, sell a few perhaps with that conditional contract you mentioned and if it looks like they might be some decent interest I'll start with the patent process. I'm still sifting through the US and canadian patents to find something similar. Hopefully by the end of summer I'll be going forward on this!
                    sigpic

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                    • Bodybagger
                      Senior Member
                      • Feb 2008
                      • 910

                      #25
                      If you take a good demo to a record company and they tell you they aren't interested and wish you luck with your song, don't be surprised in the least if you hear someone else singing it on the radio 6 months later!

                      When money is involved, people always find a way of screwing each other over.

                      If you need eye surgery, you don't go to a family doctor. You go to an eye surgeon. If have in intellectual property issue, you don't just go to any lawyer (unless you want to hasten the screwing process). You go to a lawyer specializing in intellectual property.

                      In the mean time, you might want to read the material here:

                      80% of failures are from 20% of causes
                      Never compromise your principles today in the name of furthering them in the future.
                      "All I ever wanted was an honest week's pay for an honest day's work." -Sgt. Bilko
                      "We are generally better persuaded by reasons we discover ourselves than by those given to us by others." -Pascal
                      "Since we cannot know all that there is to be known about anything, we ought to know a little about everything." -Pascal

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