New Invention or Not?

lb1

I have an idea for a new product. The product would involve combining two existing products to solve a problem that is not currently being solved.
Suppose my product was remote control window curtains, I combine a remote control and normal curtains!
Now my question is would I have any way of protecting my product from copycats once my product hit the market?

jimmii

http://www.patentsoffice.ie/en/patents_searching.aspx search to see if there is a patent if not then see if you can register one. Its likely to be pretty expensive though. Do you have enough money to invest in it get working samples out to potential retailers and enough to start up manfacturing or are you planning on patenting and selling the patent to a large company?

Peterdalkey

it is impossible to say but most patent agents will give a free initial consultation http://www.patentsoffice.ie/en/patents_agents.aspx. see the list

lb1

jimmii wrote: »

http://www.patentsoffice.ie/en/patents_searching.aspx search to see if there is a patent if not then see if you can register one. Its likely to be pretty expensive though. Do you have enough money to invest in it get working samples out to potential retailers and enough to start up manfacturing or are you planning on patenting and selling the patent to a large company?

Yes I suppose there must be precedents of patents being awarded to combi type products...
It would be a large industrial product costing a lot of money to manufacture. Being a man of limited means perhaps my best chance of success would be to secure a patent and sell the idea on.

You need to establish if the product is marketable and whether it will sell or not if you go to the expense of patenting it. There are a million patented products out there that never see the light of day because of one issue or another.

To give you an example you could make a great product and introduce that to a retailer. Problem is he already has a great product in that category with a big margin and sells a lot. Even though your product is better he might not want it because it will cannibalise sales of other more high margin products.
This is just one of many possibilities of why a product could get refused by retail.
So before you go dropping hard cash on a patent, you need to do enough research to make sure its worth your while. And not just friends and family but people who know the space your product is going into.

lb1

Deleted User wrote: »

You need to establish if the product is marketable and whether it will sell or not if you go to the expense of patenting it. There are a million patented products out there that never see the light of day because of one issue or another.

To give you an example you could make a great product and introduce that to a retailer. Problem is he already has a great product in that category with a big margin and sells a lot. Even though your product is better he might not want it because it will cannibalise sales of other more high margin products.
This is just one of many possibilities of why a product could get refused by retail.
So before you go dropping hard cash on a patent, you need to do enough research to make sure its worth your while. And not just friends and family but people who know the space your product is going into.

Yes I need to do a lot of research before I start investing money in it. But its a beautifully simple solution to a massive problem that is faced all across the globe.

CK73

can someone please invent something to replace a tube for cream? I have a tube of hydrocortisone cream and every time I untwist the lid is spews out like a volcano making a huge mess and wasting half the contents. I find myself not using it when I should be, due to not having a tissue at hand to clean up the mess.