Marketing of new patented electrical fitting

[Richard S]

I have assisted an associate to develop and patent a new electrical fitting. We have working prototypes but do not know where to try marketing it. We have an appointment with Ellies in late April, but I am doubtful that they are who we need.

The idea is simply to sell the patent to a mass manufacturer, but we are not in the industry and do not know the big players.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

[GillianW]

Hi Richard

There was an article in Noseweek about Elllies in Sept last year which will be worth a read before your meeting. An excerpt is on the web but you should try and get a copy of the full article. (I don't know the parties involved so can not comment on validity.)

Good luck.

[adrianh]

Do you have a real registered patent?
Is your patent registered worldwide?

Is your product appropriate for different countries?
Has your product been SABS approved?

[HR Solutions]

How is it better than the fittings we have now ?

[Justloadit]

Having a patent, does not necessarily mean you going to make money by selling it. There are thousands of patents, that are just patents at the patent office, and the original registrars are still no better off than when they started.
It only has value when there is an income stream attached to it.

Going to the big boys does not mean they going to run after you. After all to make the patent work, will require huge investments in tools, then marketing, then setting up the sale chain. This is very big money, and means that who ever invests in this is taking a huge risk.

So I have my doubts that you are going to get much for it.

To make the money requires you to set the process in motion, and then to sell the rights to use the patent, not selling the patent, something like a royalty, and ensure that you have a performance clause, so that you have a back door in the case that the agreement is signed, simply to halt the sales of the patented product, to maintain the current staus qu of product in the market. Aftere all huge sums of finance were used to set up the lines in the first place, and simply to stop it could cause major losses to the company concerned.

[adrianh]

@Richard S - I don't know whether you know that @justloadit is in electronics manufacturing. Speak with him because he has the best insight into the issue out of all of us!

[Richard S]

Thanks for all the feedback so far, most appreciated.
I will definitely find a back copy of Noseweek, I guess even the NDA is still a piece of paper.
The patent is registered South Africa and pending in several countries including the UK and USA.
It is appropriate for just about anywhere in the world.
It is SABS approved.
I would rather not describe the product myself right now because I am not the main guy and will leave that up to the appropriate person. But it is not really a brand new idea, more of an innovative improvement on an existing product and incorporating a safety feature.

I think I am personally quite realistic about making money out of it in the end, a bit like playing the LOTTO, despite my partners huge expectations. It does make life more interesting though.

Thanks again for all your valued input, I will keep it in mind going forward.

[Justloadit]

The fact that the attorneys issued you with a piece of paper stating that you patent is registered, still does not mean you are protected.

What then happens is that your patent is sent to all the patent offices in each country, and can take a number of years before all the information is compiled and sent to you.
They then do a search, to find anything that may be related to the patent that could be construed as prior knowledge, and will send you back all these articles, and you have to then defend your patent with relation to the articles provided. Let me tell you that this is the defense of the patent. You have to address each and every article. It can be a pamphlet that some one has made, or a entry made in some university paper, a blog entry or even excerpts from previous patents, which may involve terms such as emoluments, could, can may include .....

In the case that you can not defend the patent, then it will not be protected, but will be placed into the public domain.

So be careful that a patent is not protected until it has passed this test. Especially when purchasing a patent as an asset.

[AndyD]

.........But it is not really a brand new idea, more of an innovative improvement on an existing product and incorporating a safety feature.

The alarm bells immediately ring if you've just taken an existing system or assembly and added a safety feature, I'd worry about the validity of your patent based on the high likelihood somebody somewhere has already done it. Problem with patent lawyers is they'll happily register patents that are full of holes and undefendable in court.

How come you don't want to produce and market this product yourself? What kind of tooling would it require to start producing them?