Hi everyone. This is my progress thread regarding my first product licensing attempt. I'll be posting every step I take along the way from idea conception to actually licensing my product to a company. This will not only give me a good place to ask questions and keep me accountable, but may also help others who are following a similar path.
I'll start at the beginning. Last week I read The Millionaire Fastlane and immediately started thinking up Fastlane business ideas. One that really stuck with me though was an idea for a piece of workout equipment that I've always wished actually existed, but doesn't (to my knowledge.) I figured creating this product for myself would be a good Fastlane idea.
I did some research and came across the idea of product licensing. Upon further research into product licensing I came across Stephen Key's book One Simple Idea. I purchased it immediately and it just arrived in the mail yesterday. I finished reading it this morning and will now start following the steps Mr. Key lays out in order to get my product licensed.
I have a few questions from the book that I'm hoping someone with more experience than me could answer.
Mr. Key recommends doing research into manufacturing costs before settling on a product idea to pursue. Firstly because if a product is too expensive to manufacture, companies won't want it. And secondly because it makes you look like you've done your homework when you're pitching your idea to companies.
However he also recommends not showing your product to anyone without protecting it. So my question is, do I file for a Provisional Patent Application before I contact manufactures for a price quote, or after. Filing a PPA before doing research into manufacturing costs would be a waste of money if it turned out the product idea was a dud from a manufacturing standpoint, or if it turned out you needed to make tweaks to the product. But filling a PPA after would leave my unprotected. Mr. Key seems to say two different things at two different points in the book. First he says don't file a PPA until you've done all your research on a product and gotten price quotes from manufacturers, but later he says to get a PPA before talking to manufacturers.
Any clarification would be appreciated. Perhaps I misunderstood something.
I'll start at the beginning. Last week I read The Millionaire Fastlane and immediately started thinking up Fastlane business ideas. One that really stuck with me though was an idea for a piece of workout equipment that I've always wished actually existed, but doesn't (to my knowledge.) I figured creating this product for myself would be a good Fastlane idea.
I did some research and came across the idea of product licensing. Upon further research into product licensing I came across Stephen Key's book One Simple Idea. I purchased it immediately and it just arrived in the mail yesterday. I finished reading it this morning and will now start following the steps Mr. Key lays out in order to get my product licensed.
I have a few questions from the book that I'm hoping someone with more experience than me could answer.
Mr. Key recommends doing research into manufacturing costs before settling on a product idea to pursue. Firstly because if a product is too expensive to manufacture, companies won't want it. And secondly because it makes you look like you've done your homework when you're pitching your idea to companies.
However he also recommends not showing your product to anyone without protecting it. So my question is, do I file for a Provisional Patent Application before I contact manufactures for a price quote, or after. Filing a PPA before doing research into manufacturing costs would be a waste of money if it turned out the product idea was a dud from a manufacturing standpoint, or if it turned out you needed to make tweaks to the product. But filling a PPA after would leave my unprotected. Mr. Key seems to say two different things at two different points in the book. First he says don't file a PPA until you've done all your research on a product and gotten price quotes from manufacturers, but later he says to get a PPA before talking to manufacturers.
Any clarification would be appreciated. Perhaps I misunderstood something.
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