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Taking an invention to the market - Q & A

John calls in to see how he can get his invention on the market.

Rich Sloan:   Let's see, is it John out of New South Wales, Australia?

John:   Hey, y'all.  That's correct.

Rich Sloan:   Wow. 

John:   How are you?

Rich Sloan:   We're doing great.  It's good to be talking someone on the other hemisphere.

John:   Oh, is it good 2:30 in the morning?

Jeff Sloan:    Yeah.             

Rich Sloan:    Oh, goodness.  All right.  So how can we help you?  Time is precious.

John:   Well, my dad's come up with a new invention.  It's called a Wind Rider Motor.  It's got to do with producing power, non-pollutant power.

Rich Sloan:   Okay.

Jeff Sloan:    Sounds good so far.

John:   Yeah.  He's not really financially stable, and he just wants to know how he can get help to get it up and running.  It's been patented and it's been recognized and all this sort of stuff.

Jeff Sloan:    Is it patented only in Australia or is it internationally protected, in particular the U.S.?

John:   In Europe, not in the U.S., though.  Not at the moment.  We've got some guys, you know, in America in New York working on that.

Jeff Sloan:    Yeah, I'd say that's probably important if this is a really good thing.

John:   Yeah.

Jeff Sloan:    Well, when you say up and running, there's basically two general approaches to getting an invention to market:  One is that you get it patented, you get your intellectual property portfolio together.  You are able to demonstrate the product.  Build, maybe, some market research into the package and take that, and attempt to license the product or technology to another company that will produce and sell it and pay you a royalty in exchange for the license rights. 

John:   But the portfolio on that should be coming from America within the next, maybe, two or three weeks. 

Jeff Sloan:    Okay.  So, when you say how do you get it to market, that's one general approach to it.  The other approach is that you set up your own manufacturing and distribution. And that's where either you finance it yourself, or if you can't do that, you create a business plan.  The business plan calls for how it's going to be produced, how it's going to be distributed, how it's going to be marketed and how much funds are required to execute on all that.  You then go out and raise those funds  -- and then you produce the product and send it to market.  Now, one little distinction, one subset of that, is that in producing it yourself, you can either build your own factory or lease your own factory and do it yourself.  Or you can do something called contract manufacturing where essentially, you go to a manufacturer and you ask them to produce and sell it according to your specifications.

John:   Yeah.

Jeff Sloan:    So, I mean, that's how you do it.

John:   Oh, okay. 

Jeff Sloan:    Now, that's a simplistic explanation.

Rich Sloan:   Yeah.

Jeff Sloan:    Obviously the devil is in the details.

John:   Yeah, yeah.

Rich Sloan:   And you introduced the situation as being one where your father doesn't have a ton of resources to throw at this --

John:   Uh-huh.

Rich Sloan:   -- and so that may guide you toward the licensing route.  That may be ideal.  He may be an absolute guru in the technology --

John:   Yeah.

Rich Sloan:   -- and may be able to support some business or businesses to which he licenses that technology through his expertise and perhaps engineering capability.  And that way they have the responsibility, as Jeff indicated, of all of that business infrastructure, all the capital required in order to make these and sell these, etcetera.  And in exchange he would receive royalties.

John:   Yeah, yeah.

Rich Sloan:   That's the ideal scenario, I think, for your situation.

John:   Yeah.  Yeah, well, I sort of was on that wavelength.  I already knew that.  And, like I said, I've got these guys in America doing a portfolio and doing all this sort of stuff, but it doesn't hurt to ask.

Rich Sloan:    Yeah, yeah.

Jeff Sloan:    Oh, no. 

Rich Sloan:   It's good that you asked, and I hope we're confirming a strategy that you have in place.  We wish you a lot of luck.  May the wind be strong.

John:   No worries.

Rich Sloan:  All right.