Complete Novice needing help

Turkleton

Ok I have what I thought was a great novelty idea basically its something that would sell in gift shops possibly worldwide. I know this is a bad time for tourism etc but it wont be expensive and cost wise it wont be that much.

Now here is my problems,firstly where do I look into getting a small plastic item made. How do I check legal issues,patents etc. Should I go into somewhere like O Carrolls in Dublin to scope out interst?

This idea is at a very early stage but everyone I have mentioned it to seems to think it is very good and quirky and but Im not quite sure what angle to take,perhaps a collectibles route?

Everyone says do your research but what exactly do I research?where do I look,obviously a tough question given the vague description of my product but any advice is welcome

kenbrady

Ring these guys. They are two lads who have been in the souvineer game for years. They'll have a chat with you no problems, nice lads. Might even be a tie up with them.
Either way they have contacts in aer rianta, carrolls all the gift shops around Ireland. They could do the sales for you and you pay them a commission.

http://www.uniquedesigns.ie/contact.php

jimmmy

kenbrady wrote: »

Ring these guys. They are two lads who have been in the souvineer game for years. They'll have a chat with you no problems, nice lads.

First I do not know the lads or anything about them.
However, before you tell too many other people about the exact idea, people sometimes suggest you send a sealed registered letter to yourself outlining the idea beforehand ? You want to do all you can to prevent others possibly copying the idea / bringing it to market before you do, if its that good ?


If you do make a million, just give me 5% for this advice lol

way2tall

KenBrady makes sense - and don't worry too much about IP at this stage

What you can get from talking to people is the idea of the process involved ..

a.) Manufacturing this type of thing and b.) distributing it .. It should be possible to understand the lie of the land with out actually telling anyone your specific idea ..

That gives you some basic idea of the feasibility of producing the stuff .. and the costs involved ..

b.) You then need to figure out whether there really is a market for it .. How many people are going to buy it .. if you did get it into all of the souvenir shops in Ireland .. waht sort of volumes would you be able to sell ..

C.) Balance costs agains opportunity How many would you need to sell inorder for it to make sense ..

d.) If you do want to protect the idea ... you can probably register a trademark and a design ... for relatrively little money ..

e.) produce some samples .. get some buy in and then the worlds your oyster ..


Probably lots of things missing -- but just wanted to point out that you can test the feasibility of an idea without having to give the idea away