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What companies make New Years glasses?
I have an idea for glasses for 2011-2099 and I want to pitch it to them.. is this the best route? Because I think its too late to patent right? In time for the New Years season. So should I try and sell it to a company? How would I even do that. Or should I tell several companies and then ask for the best offer? Can I claim something is my idea even if I don't have a patent? Thanks
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Hi there,
Any custom sunglass manufacturer can make the product for you, or pay you for the idea.
Here are a couple links that will cover MANY manufacturers:
[Link](Mouse over link to see full location)
[Link](Mouse over link to see full location)
... Now, as for patenting this I can tell you from experience that a patent search is a long and expensive process. It isn't something you typically have success doing on your own.
There is a book titled: "The Case Against Patents" by Don Lancaster
Had I had that book, or even read this article summary:
[Link](Mouse over link to see full location)
... I would have saved myself literally years of my life time.
If you get the book you will be armed with what you need to know to make a success out of your idea if at all possible.
If you question the idea of such a book, go read that article I linked you to. What the man says is pretty much the way it is.
Trying to patent something AND make money from said patent has been a one-way trip to the looney-bin for many people before either of us ever thought of patenting something.
If you try to patent something, and you manage to escape dead broke and homeless... but still have your sanity, you should count yourself blessed.
There is this tremendous mythology built up around the way the patent system works... and while the system might have been very workable for the industrial revolution, those days are all but gone.
Here is a VERY short version of how it usually goes: You spend $6,000-30,000 for lawyers to do a patent search. Bonus! Your idea probably isn't already patented or too close to something with an existing patent to make a legal case for the uniqueness of your item.
Great! So you file a patent application.
Your application is looked at by many thousands of people who do nothing but steal ideas from said applications.
Here is where the trouble starts: You get your patent after say, a year... and you get a truckload of them manufactured.
You go to sell them and find that Mega-CompanyXYZ already has your product in stores. They have had them in the stores months before your patent was granted.
Maybe they changed one small thing, and filed another patent claiming it as unique, but usually they just use it as is. Why?
Ok, so you file a patent infringement lawsuit. Mega-Co has an entire legal department that does nothing but this. You, if you are lucky, will find one lawyer willing to take your case.
Usually the lawyer will carry you along until you have spent everything you have and sold your home to continue paying his fees. When you run out of money, the lawyer drops the case. Mega-Co can keep one lawyer busy with paperwork for several years.
If Mega-Co is off-shore from your country, your lawsuit is no less than 1000 times less likely to see success.
If I was going to try to wade through the patent process again, I would NOT even begin to think about it without $100,000 in cash in my hands. No way. The only way to win that game is either not to play or to hire the biggest, baddest patent lawyer you can find. That $100,000 would be gone in a month, tops.
I looked into the product cycle for new-years novelty sunglasses, and found that the products will be in the hands of the middlemen by November. This doesn't give you much time to make a play for next year.
I have seen designs for them already, and I don't know if you have something they aren't already doing or not.
If you do, I would set myself a price that I wanted for my idea, and approach a manufacturer.
The odds of you winning on this are pretty slim, you should know that going into it.
I don't want to discourage you, but the reality is that an off-shore company that makes novelty glasses can take your idea, fold up shop and open under a new name in a matter of days. They probably wouldn't bother because they know the odds of you winning a lawsuit against them is practically zero.
If you offer it to several companies, here is what will happen: You will never hear back from them, and you will see your idea on shelves probably next year. If you protest, they simply say they never heard of you.
If you can find a novelty manufacturer in the USA, if you live here, and you are willing to meet with them at their offices... AND they are willing to sign a non-disclosure agreement before seeing your idea... you MIGHT have a chance.
Only, and I mean ONLY pursue this if you are certain that your idea isn't in the manufacturing pipe already. Why? If the US maker runs with your idea, and someone else has rights to it already, you are both in jeopardy of being sued.
I am NOT a lawyer, by any means, and I strongly suggest that if you read the article, then hopefully the book... and still want to proceed that you spend the money to go over your idea with a lawyer.
Before you do that, you can save yourself some grief by reading that material I mentioned a few times now.
Good luck and wish you success in every good thing that you set your hand to.
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