Inventing a New Gadget/Item/Tool: Worth the Process?

[Yanezez]

Hello all,

I've been reading on the whole process to undergo if you think you have an idea of a new product. I am still researching so hopefully someone here knows more than me (very likely).

It seems that inventing a new product is very risky from a legal point of view, as;

a) Even if you patent, nothing really stops someone else from another country making the same thing. In China especially, they won't care for the patents.
b) The patenting process can be fuzzy (depending on the country)
c) So you invent something with value, you can try producing some units and let's say you sell on Amazon. In a very short time, you'll get replicas and even with patent there is very little you can do.

This is in a context where its you alone, so you don't have an army of lawyers. Most of the time, inspiring inventors don't have a lot of cash anyway to follow through a lawsuit.

I would love to be wrong (and most likely I am). But wanted to hear from those with more experience than me

 

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[shubham___3011]

Hello all,

I've been reading on the whole process to undergo if you think you have an idea of a new product. I am still researching so hopefully someone here knows more than me (very likely).

It seems that inventing a new product is very risky from a legal point of view, as;

a) Even if you patent, nothing really stops someone else from another country making the same thing. In China especially, they won't care for the patents.
b) The patenting process can be fuzzy (depending on the country)
c) So you invent something with value, you can try producing some units and let's say you sell on Amazon. In a very short time, you'll get replicas and even with patent there is very little you can do.

This is in a context where its you alone, so you don't have an army of lawyers. Most of the time, inspiring inventors don't have a lot of cash anyway to follow through a lawsuit.

I would love to be wrong (and most likely I am). But wanted to hear from those with more experience than me

Hey there buddy, can you please let us know what advice/suggestion you are looking for?

 

[Yanezez]

Hey there buddy, can you please let us know what advice/suggestion you are looking for?

Apologies, I think I may have used the wrong tag (I assume responsibility). I don't have an idea per se, just wanted to get feedback from those full-on inventors.

 

[amp0193]

Hello all,

I've been reading on the whole process to undergo if you think you have an idea of a new product. I am still researching so hopefully someone here knows more than me (very likely).

It seems that inventing a new product is very risky from a legal point of view, as;

a) Even if you patent, nothing really stops someone else from another country making the same thing. In China especially, they won't care for the patents.
b) The patenting process can be fuzzy (depending on the country)
c) So you invent something with value, you can try producing some units and let's say you sell on Amazon. In a very short time, you'll get replicas and even with patent there is very little you can do.

This is in a context where its you alone, so you don't have an army of lawyers. Most of the time, inspiring inventors don't have a lot of cash anyway to follow through a lawsuit.

I would love to be wrong (and most likely I am). But wanted to hear from those with more experience than me

What’s the alternative? Being one of the replicas of someone else’s thing?

Lower effort = lower reward.

Business success requires competency not just in product creation, but in the sales and marketing ability to make sure you can get your product to market more expeditiously than any knock offs.

Quality and Brand are the moat you build that keep people buying yours even when knock offs become available. As the creator, you will always be two steps ahead of the copy cats. They’ll launch the copies, but you’re working on version 2 behind the scenes. It’s an arms race that doesn’t end.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

This thread might be relevant...

ASK THE AI - The Invention of "5 Hour Energy"

Can you give me the origin story and a short bio of the founder/inventor behind the product "5 Hour Energy"?

www.thefastlaneforum.com

Not inventing something because it will eventually be copied is like wanting to play in the rain while not getting wet.

 

[Aidan04]

Effort and action beat copycats. If you have a leg up on the competition already, some average guy isn't going to be able to copy you, because you have already made substantial amounts of progress.

Now if your product can be created in a 3D printer in one go, it will be super easy to copy. But suppose it involves a proprietary mechanism or complex electronics or is integrated with a software sibling product. In that case, it will be challenging to copy in a short amount of time.

By then, people will be loyal to your brand and your image if you choose to expand it.

 

[Mikkel]

a) Even if you patent, nothing really stops someone else from another country making the same thing. In China especially, they won't care for the patents.

The risk of IP theft generally occurs during the manufacturing of products. If you are worried about IP threat, find countries that respect IP rights. Essentially, don't manufacturer in China.

b) The patenting process can be fuzzy

Each country is different. The US has decent protections.

So you invent something with value, you can try producing some units and let's say you sell on Amazon. In a very short time, you'll get replicas and even with patent there is very little you can do.

Depending on the invention, patents may be worth defending while others do not based on hiw much money it would cost to defend verse let someone steal your IP. When inventing your product, you may benefit from determining what type of product it is. A tiny object that may sell a few units and for low cost may not be worth patenting. A product with decent returns may be worth patenting but might not be worth fighting. A patient that is a cash cow is worth patenting and defending.

Know which one your product will be and plan accordingly.

 

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[Yanezez]

Thank you all. There is a lot of useful feedback.

A summary:
Is it worth it? depends on the invention. For some products it's worth to patent. For others, it's worth to patent but not follow lawsuit.

As the inventor, you are ahead of the copycats: Here I somewhat disagree (Again, no experience). Whatever I invent in my garage can eeeeasily get improved by a multi-million dollar company in about a week. It's not an arms race since its you vs Goliath. Again, I haven't invented anything so doubt all I see, just my uncensored opinion.

It seems in the US, patent laws are decent. Avoid manufacturing in China.

 

[Yanezez]

This thread might be relevant...

ASK THE AI - The Invention of "5 Hour Energy"

Can you give me the origin story and a short bio of the founder/inventor behind the product "5 Hour Energy"?

www.thefastlaneforum.com

Not inventing something because it will eventually be copied is like wanting to play in the rain while not getting wet.

Hey MJ, just finishing Unscripted (about 70% in ) , great job and already recommended.

I agree 100%. However, some people want to invent for the love of inventing and because they want to strike gold. Both options are, of course, respected choices. I'm not taking a stance either in favor or against, just trying to fill in some blanks in my cabeza.

This is useful information for sure. There are no easy roads, all require work and that is actually, a good thing.

 

[Mikkel]

When you go down the inventing pathway, there are also multiple pathways to sell your product. The most obvious would he to sell the product yourself.

However, there are also licensing options where another company will pay you either through royalties or they can outright buy your patent for a price you and the company decide on.

 

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[JAJT]

Every major (and minor) brand has competitors with equally or near-equally similar products.

The benefit of inventing something is that you become the "original" brand. And if you do it right, you put more effort into the design and branding and marketing than others, and people learn to associate your brand with quality and the copycats are "cheap", even if they have similar effectiveness.

Look at Yeti - their $50 insulated mugs don't do anything that the $10 Chinese ones don't. But when someone wants to splurge on the best insulated mug there is, they grab a Yeti mug. I know someone who bought a $70 Yeti dog food bowl. You can't do that unless you invent something great and build a strong brand around it.

 

[amp0193]

Whatever I invent in my garage can eeeeasily get improved by a multi-million dollar company in about a week

Big companies move slow. Lots of beuracracy. It will take them 2-3 years for them to even notice what you're doing, then another 12 months to decide internally whether or not they should make their own version (if they think the market for the product is even big enough to be worth their time), then another 12 months to get it to market and meanwhile you've got 5 years of brand recognition and customer feedback.

"A big company might one day knock off my thing" is not a great reason to not start your thing. If your product is good, then of course it's going to be knocked off... that's market validation.

 

[Panos Daras]

For me, the invention of a new product is not the difficult part.
I find it equally or even more difficult to communicate to consumers why they should buy this product, and why you are the person they should buy it from.
That by no means implies that you should quit.

 

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[JAJT]

"A big company might one day knock off my thing" is not a great reason to not start your thing.

Especially since it's becoming more and more popular to simply buy out your competitors and the companies you covet.

Big companies don't value products very much. They do, however, value audiences and customer bases and market trust and such. Things you can't just copy overnight. You can however buy them overnight - by buying your company.

What do you think is more profitable for a huge company - copying a cool product from an indie company and trying to build that new brand up from literal scratch, OR buying your indie brand and introducing 10 new products in the next 12 months and rolling your sloppy business practices into their well oiled machine?

 

[Yanezez]

Big companies move slow. Lots of beuracracy. It will take them 2-3 years for them to even notice what you're doing, then another 12 months to decide internally whether or not they should make their own version (if they think the market for the product is even big enough to be worth their time), then another 12 months to get it to market and meanwhile you've got 5 years of brand recognition and customer feedback.

"A big company might one day knock off my thing" is not a great reason to not start your thing. If your product is good, then of course it's going to be knocked off... that's market validation.

That's a very good point. Cheers

 

[Xeon]

Whatever you invent, unless you've an army of lawyers and infinite money for legal battles.....will be copied, made into various variations + colors, sold and distributed with lightning speed on Temu and AliExpress, at 1/10 your cost, by Chinese copycats. Then, they take your invention, and make an even better version of it and repeat the process above.

 

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[MitchC]

The best defence against any business or product idea is great execution, building a brand, quality, solving a real problem, and hitting the market hard and fast and adapting

Your product would have to be a massive success for people to want to copy it, and then it's going to take time and money to compete, by then you could be rich already, or have brand recognition hard to compete with

A large company is unlikely to rip off a patented product

A small sketchy 1 man band is unlikely to invest in anything hard like product development

Chinese suck at branding, marketing and anything but knocking people off and competing on price

I think the bigger threat and much more likely outcome is inventing something new and not being able to sell it, or sell it profitably

And besides, what's the alternative? Never try, never make any money off it because you're scared of being so successful people copy you?

Get a provisional patent for cheap, deal with a manufacturer who isn't going to sell your product out the back door, maybe add your logo to the moulds, and get to market fast. Make enough money in the first year to buy a real patent before it expires.

 

[Yanezez]

Whatever you invent, unless you've an army of lawyers and infinite money for legal battles.....will be copied, made into various variations + colors, sold and distributed with lightning speed on Temu and AliExpress, at 1/10 your cost, by Chinese copycats. Then, they take your invention, and make an even better version of it and repeat the process above.

Thank you. It was my hunch. For the little guy, not worth inventing.

It's certainly a different a opinion than the rest of the posters here, but a welcomed one.

 

[Yanezez]

The best defence against any business or product idea is great execution, building a brand, quality, solving a real problem, and hitting the market hard and fast and adapting

Your product would have to be a massive success for people to want to copy it, and then it's going to take time and money to compete, by then you could be rich already, or have brand recognition hard to compete with

A large company is unlikely to rip off a patented product

A small sketchy 1 man band is unlikely to invest in anything hard like product development

Chinese suck at branding, marketing and anything but knocking people off and competing on price

I think the bigger threat and much more likely outcome is inventing something new and not being able to sell it, or sell it profitably

And besides, what's the alternative? Never try, never make any money off it because you're scared of being so successful people copy you?

Get a provisional patent for cheap, deal with a manufacturer who isn't going to sell your product out the back door, maybe add your logo to the moulds, and get to market fast. Make enough money in the first year to buy a real patent before it expires.

Well, to play devil's advocate, the alternative is using your time, effort and resources on other tasks, such as selling a service.

But thank you for the feedback

 

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[Mikkel]

Well, to play devil's advocate, the alternative is using your time, effort and resources on other tasks, such as selling a service.

But thank you for the feedback

It is more than fine to choose something other than inventing and go the service sector. Both are viable paths.

However, don't you think you are limiting yourself here? You don't want to invent a product because someone MIGHT steal your invention down the line?

Every product that you see today was invented by someone. Every variation was created by someone else. If this process was not lucrative, you would still see the horse drawn carriage and forget about the computer or typewriter, you might still be writing with a quill and ink.

I'm working with an inventor right now who has just signed a massive deal with a huge company. Projected to sell 10 million units in their first year. He will get royalties on all profits.

China can rip off his product, they probably will. However, he leveraged someone else's brand and someone else's distribution channel. No matter how many knockoff brands are made, the brand will continue to show strong sales as it has proven for years and years at this point and this inventor will make a really nice profit from his work.

You have a limiting belief about inventing. If you have a good invention that has real potential, don't throw the idea away. If you develop the skills and knowledge within the space, you are more than capable of making something work.

Your success in business will come from your problem solving abilities within the space. Choose a space. Stick to it for the long haul. Become an expert in the space. Dominate.

Every industry has their host of problems. Inventing has them just like the service industry does too.

 

[Yanezez]

It is more than fine to choose something other than inventing and go the service sector. Both are viable paths.

However, don't you think you are limiting yourself here? You don't want to invent a product because someone MIGHT steal your invention down the line?

Every product that you see today was invented by someone. Every variation was created by someone else. If this process was not lucrative, you would still see the horse drawn carriage and forget about the computer or typewriter, you might still be writing with a quill and ink.

I'm working with an inventor right now who has just signed a massive deal with a huge company. Projected to sell 10 million units in their first year. He will get royalties on all profits.

China can rip off his product, they probably will. However, he leveraged someone else's brand and someone else's distribution channel. No matter how many knockoff brands are made, the brand will continue to show strong sales as it has proven for years and years at this point and this inventor will make a really nice profit from his work.

You have a limiting belief about inventing. If you have a good invention that has real potential, don't throw the idea away. If you develop the skills and knowledge within the space, you are more than capable of making something work.

Your success in business will come from your problem solving abilities within the space. Choose a space. Stick to it for the long haul. Become an expert in the space. Dominate.

Every industry has their host of problems. Inventing has them just like the service industry does too.

I see your point. Btw, I'm not taking a stance...yet. I'm trying to learn from this experienced community

And I see your point, I'm not inclining to be against putting effort in inventing per se. I'm inclining to be against putting effort in inventing when you don't have lawyers, don't have money for lawsuits and are pretty much functioning as a start-up.

 

[Mikkel]

I see your point. Btw, I'm not taking a stance...yet. I'm trying to learn from this experienced community

And I see your point, I'm not inclining to be against putting effort in inventing per se. I'm inclining to be against putting effort in inventing when you don't have lawyers, don't have money for lawsuits and are pretty much functioning as a start-up.

This is why a significant portion of inventors will take the licensing route over the venturing route. Licensing will allow you to leverage potentially large companies who have a lot of money and lawyers to bring your product to market.

 

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