Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Well, it`s terribly difficult to know exactly what you`re asking, but here`s at least one answer.

1.  Is it a patentable product?  You can at least file for a provisional patent quite cheaply and claim that you have applied for patent protection when you talk to them.

2. You could try to make contact and establish a relationship and ask them to sign a confidentiality agreement with you - shoot me an email if you want a free template to use for this.  The problem with this approach is that this request might put them off right from the start and your relationship will be dead in the water.

3. A word of advice when you talk to the actual companies that you are trying to sell/partner to/with.  Don`t be as vague as you are here - they`ll kick you out.  Take a chance and bare your soul to them, if they are reputable, they won`t steal your idea anyway.  But if they think you might not have anything because you are being vague, you`re dead right from the start.

So my bottom line advice based on the limited knowledge that you`ve presented is to find reputable companies and tell as much of your story as you need to in order to get them hooked.  If you dance around too much about the secrecy of your idea, you`re probably going to spend more money than you need to and offend the very people you`re trying to do business with.  Also a prototype and a few case studies will go a lot farther than a simple slide presentation.

We`ve had a number of people ask this same kind of thing, and the answer *tends to* come back that a company doesn`t care. If you submit the idea, they`ll either thank you, but no thanks, or they`ll use the idea as an inspiration to fully develop from scratch their own implementation and call it theirs.

Think about Smuckers`s and this "new" product they`ve released. It`s for the frozen section, and gives you pre-made crustless PB&J sammiches. Why did a jelly company take 1,000 years to figure out this product? Nobody knows. I`m sure people throughout history have asked themselves, "How come I can`t just get these sammiches like my ma used to make, already made?"

There are all kinds of ideas for better ways to utilize a product or technology, different marketing approaches, and so forth and so on. But the odds of convincing a company to put into play an idea from someone outside the company, which idea is also patented or legally protected so they`d have to pay royalties, is an uphill battle.

Is there ANY way you could produce this new implementation on your own, then go to the company and get a licensing agreement for the portion of the final product they could say they control?

For me to do this idea, i would have to literally create a food company and then tie it in with internet and merge it with the other industry which I would also have to develop from scratch. I`m not really sure how I would go about making all that. It`d be like putting three businesses together. Is this where a business plan would work well for me? And if it worked, I might as well just keep it away from the big companies and make my own dough.

I guess it depends on the product and idea. But generally, without knowing any of the details, the likelihood of having the originating company buy your idea and pay royalties is pretty slim.

Legalzoom does not file patent applications anymore - wonder why?

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James Lindon, Ph.D. Patent Attorney
Lindon & Lindon, LLC
Cleveland, Ohio
Patents, Trademarks, Copyrights, Pharmacy Law, Litigation
[this is not legal advice - provided for discussion only]
Intellectual Property for the Individual and Small Business: Identify, Protect, Enforce, Defend.
"Fools rush in where angels fear to tread."
http://www.LindonLaw.com

I wonder why?  Please tell us.  Thank you.