Patent protection?

The_Junior

The_Junior

New member
So I have a couple guitar related design ideas I'm having remote thoughts about turning into a profit by establishing a protected patent, then sell the ideas to a company.

Anyone familiar with this concept?
 
Re: Patent protection?

Yes, a patent lawyer will do the research to see if there are any past patents covering the same ideas, and help navigate the associated paperwork. There will be some $$ involved.
 
Re: Patent protection?

The patent application is several thousand dollars, not to mention attorney fees, and that only protects you in one country. To be protected worldwide, you have to apply in each country you want protection. You have 1 year to file from the moment you publish or show someone the idea.

Make sure you’ve built and tested the idea and it actually works reliably. If you can’t prove the idea, no ones going to buy it.
 
Re: Patent protection?

A patent is only as good as the ability to enforce it.

Build it, sell it, gain market share and brand visibility........then patent it if things start gaining momentum.

I spent years searching the patent archives back in the 1980s and noticed that there 5x as many people coming in with no design.......but they sure left with one.

Listing a patent before you've proven the product marketable can alert a potential competitor with deeper pockets.
 
Re: Patent protection?

The tricky part is going from an idea to a product. You're in for one hell of a tough sell.
 
Re: Patent protection?

In the huge, huge and fiercely competitive guitar market, you will spend thousands of dollars on attorneys and patent searches, and patents only to find out that someone in the industry has already come up with your idea, and/or (most likely) no manufacturer wants or is willing to pay you for your idea.

There is such a thing as ideology or fantasy, and then there's reality.

Start building your idea and selling it yourself and keep your head in "reality". But realize that if you do all the aforementioned legal stuff, you NEVER will "turn it into a profit".
 
Re: Patent protection?

Or if it's successful in the marketplace, you'll soon find Asian copies saturating the market stealing your profits and not bothering to pay you any licensing fees. Talk to Gary Kahler about that one... He actually spent 2 fortunes chasing the bastards down in international courts getting them to stop.
 
Re: Patent protection?

One issue with a patent is you are making public the workings of your invention. Sometimes it’s easier to just hide things. Unless it’s obvious just from looking at it.


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Re: Patent protection?

Prepare for several years of work -you really can't effectively do this with an attorney -especially on your first go. It's a lot of work, remember, YOU do the research and all the work on the present related items in the market to prove to the Patent Office that it's protectable. -The Patent office doesn't.

I'm not bitter because I knew this going in, but I designed guitar effect circuit back in the 90s that a couple of reknowned players used on occasion live and on some cool records -I never got the patent because Circuits are impossible to patent and honestly, no circuit is birthed in a vacuum -they all are based on previous work -it's sort of the implied contract -Now 30 years later every Pedal company in industry has at least one pedal that approximates something similar to what I made then.

Sounds like your idea may be industrial design or mechanical in nature for the Guitar though?
 
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