i approuched a few companies this week to disccus making up templates for me...they all requested cad drawings...or told me there would be a fee for making up the drawings...i dont have a problem with that...so i have decided to get someone to make up all my template drawing in auto cad.

now heres the catch...what i am concerned about is one of the companies which i give the drawing to...so they can quote..taking my drawings if i dont accept the quote and making the items themselves and selling the product for a slightly cheaper price...considering there is no company in this country making these items...i will be the first...what concerns me is that they could make and sell the item cheeper than i could because they have the machines already...if it takes off then i will invest in my own machine...but for now i will have to get them to make the templates for me...

i started this week making templates myself but i found that it is extremely difficult to get both sides exactly the same...after about 9 attempts...i am still out 2 or 3 mm...if i use a cnc machine it will be perfect...i also dont want to carry on working with mdf in my workshop...the stuff makes a flippen huge mess and the dust gets in everything...i have enough templates ready to take up a whole mdf sheet.

how could i prevent a company from using my drawings if i dont accept their quote.

the interent makes it so easy to copy other peoples ideas...i had it happen a couple of times now where i build something...load pics and 2 weeks later there is exactly the same product for sale...with a few minor mods...so now i do the same thing...if i see something i like on the net i download it copy it...scale it print it out and copy it onto a template and walla.

i dont know too much about patents...but i have heard that you only need to change one same thing and it is not longer regarded as a copy of a patent...is this true?