| Nickname: |  Nan-preneurMercer, PA United States |
- I`ve set up a meeting with an Intellectual Property Attorney in a couple weeks and want to know what you all are doing as far as using one or not. Please write your experiences and how much you`ve spent, if you don`t mind telling.Thanks!Nan
In my limited experience, a provisional will run ya about $2000-$4000 ish, a utility $7500.00-$10,000 and up depending on the complexity of the patent. Here`s my take on the is it worth it part of your question. For ME, yes! I love my attorney, and she`s worth every penny. You can`t be all things to all people and you need to play to your strengths and outsource the rest. When starting a company, bringing and idea to market or even going the licensing route, you have SOOOO many hats to wear that you can`t possibly wear them all. Personally, I had neither the time nor expertise to do this very important step myself. I do know people that have successfully written their own patents and successfully licensed them, but that`s just not me. I budgeted this expense into my startup costs as one of the those necessary evils. If are one of those people that have tons more time then money, and have the drive, energy and smarts to learn all the language, rules, and nuances of writing a patent, then by all means, give it whirl. This wasn`t a risk I was willing to take. I know my strengths and legal jargon isn`t one of them. This is a decision only you can make for yourself.
Leslie,
Thanks! I`ve already made an appt with a firm from my feeling that, like you, I don`t have the time or expertise to make sure the documents are written correctly. This is just another part of research and wanted to see what everyone else is doing in this situation.NanI did not have the money or the expertise either. But since I had less money than time, I wrote my own provisional and then converted it to a regular. And, although I am smarter than the average bear, it was very difficult and my finished product was clumsy at best. To top things off, my idea was not really patent worthy. If I had spoken to a patent attorney, I could have saved my self a lot of trouble.
And although you can “edit” and re-submit your application if it is denied, this apparently makes it less defendable in court if it is ever contested.
On the bright side, I now have a great deal of understanding about how the patent process works.
well heres my bit...I paid 500.00 for a patent attorney to do some research on a Idea that I had come up with back in 1992. I found out that the basic idea of my idea was patented in 1994. The firm then told me why I couldn`t go any further with it. This was in 2000. At the time they said that I could basiclly patent certain parts of my version of the Idea but that would be it.
Its been now 8 yrs and the patent holder has done nothing with it. His pencil sketch does not give it any justice. My version of this idea done up on a Rapid prototype desinge in my opinion would probably bring it to market. Having said this...I`m responding because the firm never gave me any options or advice on what other possibilities were out their. We all know that we have to be positive right, "if their is a will, their is a way," right? I mean just a little bit of helpful advice would of been apreciated, wether it was contacting the patent holder myself, or getting desinge protection and other ways of helping me make some sound desciions concerning what to do. Even if it would of cost me more for the legal advice I might of been willing to pay for it had they offered me more legal advice. So I`m not so sure if they are always looking out for ways to help you persue your dreams and with proper Desinge and engineering, especially if they figure you don`t have the capital to pay and stay in it for the long haul!! this is my take. I`m going to think twice now before I ever think about hiring one....
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By - Hey everyone,I`m just curious as to where you are in your inventing process. From the articles I`ve read it seems the actual percentage of success of a product, mainly licensing, is very low, less than 10% of ideas presented to companies. But after reading through many posts, it seems like many of you are getting licensing agreements - congratulations! I want to see the breakdown of numbers.Thanks!Nan
- patent pending, manufacturing, and distributing ... and having a blast!
We can see there are some advantages to licensing, but we think the greatest satisfaction comes from journey and not the destination (and when we get thar` we`re going to do it all over again with our next invention ... keep the stone rolling!) - Thanks Chris.At first we were all for having our own company, but in reality, we don`t have time and we`d rather be the inventors and start things - we have almost a dozen ideas. We have 2 kiddos under 3 so at this time licensing seems the better route for us. I would still like to develop a product, sell it through a website, do the marketing, have a company, but not sure its feasible right now. But, who knows, if w can`t get it licensed then maybe we will have to manuf & dist.Nan
- That`s a great thing about licensing as it gives you the ability to invent `n go!In our case we specifically wanted to have a product we could build a business around; so the grind and challenges are a welcome change to our normally boring lives! There`s more to it than that, but basically by having an invention we get to get to decide everything from the branding to the people and places we use (e.g., a licensing company wouldn`t blink about using communist China, but we get to say, "naw, we`re not about that.")You have a great selection of companies to work with in licensing and they do have some great resources to make your life a lot easier ... gives you a chance to focus on this kiddies and important things in life; and what you`ll learn will make you all that much better when (if) you decide to take an invention to market yourselves.Have fun!
Ditto TigerTaco!!!! YIPEEEE!!!
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| Description: | mom with many ideas but little development. |
22 August, 2009
