Quote:
Originally Posted by fanaudical
This is a very tricky problem/question. Having done this from the corporate-side, here's my recommendation (assuming you're going to attempt to produce the product):
#1 - Determine what the intellectual property is and what it will take to secure it. A standard utility patent with reasonable claims will take ~$25-40k to prepare and file properly for both domestic and international markets. Unfortunately, patents are now a commercial decision and not just a decision to protect IP. Determine if your idea is already covered by the claims of others. There are some online tools (like freepatents.com ) that can help with this. Finding something "close" to your idea doesn't automatically disqualify it; it just raises the price tag of having your patent attorney work around those claims.
#2 - Verify there is a market and do your research to determine the realistic estimated market size for the first five years. Also determine approximate selling price that the market can support.
#3 - Determine the approximate cost of engineering/design and additional research required to bring the thing to manufacturing.
#4 - Determine the cost of manufacturing (include tooling, equipment, consumables, etc).
#5 - Does the thing sell itself? What are the marketing and distribution costs?
Once you've got all that, do the math. Can you patent, develop, market, and manufacture at the cost required to get your required margin at the sell price the market can support?
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Also think about how the patent could be broken by minor changes to the mechanism/function.
Any patent can be broken, but it sure sucks if it gets broken right after you tool up over something trivial and cheap , when you could have done that yourself to begin with.