patent or license? how to protect an idea

[mandeek]

hi there - i invented a neato craft kit to make a toy at home. i have done several focus groups involving kids and parents and it has been very well received.

with that said, i paid for a patent search and nothing has come up comparable - so i'm excited naturally. although, two items came back that had 1 similar feature - but nothing exact.

regarding interest, i already have a local children's museum who wants to carry it in their gift shop. i'm thinking large scale of course and want to sell it to a company like alex or other large manufactures - do i do a provisional patent - will this protect me best to start - what is licensing? i just want to make sure some large or even small company doesn't steal my idea - please help - i've done so much work on this -(like us all of course) and i really want to see my idea succeed!

[Inventoy]

Hello Mandeek,

Welcome to the forums. Hopefully you find all the help you are looking for. We will certainly try and help as best we can. In answer to your question I will briefly try and summarise licensing for you. Licensing is a preferred route by many private inventors and even professional invention companies to get their ideas on the store shelf. Inventors take their idea to Toy manufacturers in the hope it will get licensed. A licence agreement basically allows the toy company to produce and retail your idea and in return the company will offer the inventor a small percentage of income from any units they sell. The company may offer in the region of 3-6% royalty payment to the inventor (sometimes, but rarely, more, sometimes less). This amount will most commonly depend on varying factors such as cost outlay and risk to the company. On the plus side, using this route takes the risk element away from the inventor. As you probably already know getting from sketch pad (initial idea) to actual product can be a costly process. The toy companies know what to do, have the resources and established retail outlets to move products forward and if it all fails you as the inventor does not lose as much as you would going it alone.

If you decide to proceed along this route the toy company will handle patents and legalities etc which is another great advantage. Make sure you get a Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA) signed before showing your idea to any company. You can copyright any written documents and designs yourself for free. It may be worth considering trade marks if your product has a good unique name or brand. I personally don't know if a provisional patent is worth while. Maybe others here will be able to comment?

Hope this helps to get you started.

Inventoy

[haekel]

Inventoy,

I have a follow up question on the liscensing so there is not a place like Washington state department of liscensing for toys correct? The liscensing term here is more of an agreement for someone to manufacture the idea?

Also I'd like to run my situation by you and I'd like to make sure I'm doing everyting correctly. I now have 3D models of my product line and here is what I plan to do next.

Step 1 Copyright my design and pay the $35 fee. You say I can do this for free are you referring to the copyright law that protects me automatically? Also my idea will be made of plastic and foam and will be a small toy replica of an existing product (example law mower). So how active should I be in protecting this idea if it's only a toy replica of an existing product?

Step 2
Option A: Look for a manufacturer in China that also does prototyping and work closely with them to get the best price for production and make design adjustments depending on cost. Then put up a web site as my retail store and sell my products online. I don't see very many toy makers selling their product online retail style is this a bad idea?

Step 2
Option B: Present my idea to toy companies or toy brokers to see if I can get a liscensing deal going.

As of the moment I'm drowning in literature on toy safety, 3D printing, & toy brokers. I'm also finding it very difficult to communicate with Chinese manufacturers. If you have suggestions on possible toy manufacturers please let me know.

[Inventoy]

Registering the design is never a bad idea. With regard to options many toy manufacturers prefer to see a prototype purely because you have taken away some of teh work and proved that its does indeed work. You can also get ideas licensed without prototypes. It can and has been doen time and time again. Most successes though seem to have a prototype involved somewhere along the line. Sktchpad to product seems to be very rare. If you can give me some idea of teh product category we may be able to offer up some toy manufcaturers to try

Hope this helps,

Inventoy.