Protect yourself while trying to develop/market a tool

As the title says, how does one go about this? We have designed an ingenious and simple tool and want to receive royalties, IF possible, and have someone make and market this tool.

Any and all input is accepted. Thanks

So you have your posts automatically signed in green with gratitude that this forum is open source and NON commercial but ironically ask on this same forum for ways to protect your own ideas and commercialize them... :wink:

I am under the impression that any good idea that is commercially interesting will end up on Aliexpress sooner or later. So I have no clue how to prevent that. But I do wish you well and hope someone on here can help. Very curious what the tool is though?

Small time operation here, no where near commercial and don't have anything to do with "E" anything. Just looking for advice.

Patents are expensive and can be bypassed by China, etc. All I want to do is get a company interested and make a small royalty per piece produced.

For real? You make a genius invention but can't figure out the most basic things which are all on google? You are asking to get screwed. Talk to a lawyer. What you need is a patent and someone with good business sense who can run your thing, since you clearly have none.

flat tire said:

For real?

Click to expand...

Have to watch Shark Tank, or Dragons Den.... people always asking for protection and royalties. Sit back, and ride the gravy train of royalties. China will just rip ya off and their government does nothing about it. That is why to protect a product, need deep pockets but also get to the market first and expand like crazy. Then hopefully the barrier for anyone else to get into the same product, is too high and CR's product cashes in BIG TIME! Obviously gotta get into the American markets, have the right company with the right infractstucture to pounce and rake it in BIG TIME! People in the know with the right contacts, rather then some stranger walking in with a prototype. CR is on the right path, just takes leg work, some phone dialing, and one BIG TIME check. Walmart low balls businesses. I say if CR can get on on of them tv shows, could have a chance, but if a deal is not made and his reaches the airwaves then it reaches millions of people who could rip off CR BIG TIME. Dont want that, just want fat cash!

Perhaps a better resource would be to attend some Business meetups in your area and discuss options there.
https://www.meetup.com

Harold in CR said:

As the title says, how does one go about this? We have designed an ingenious and simple tool and want to receive royalties, IF possible, and have someone make and market this tool.

Click to expand...

1) Get a patent. They are not cheap or foolproof but they're the best show in town right now.

2) Get investment capital (yours or someone else's) and build some so you can demonstrate them. Be prepared to sell a few; this both establishes you as a producer of your tool (can be important in a lawsuit later) and proves you're not a guy in a garage with a half-baked idea.

3) Talk to a lawyer to set up an LLC that the patent is held under; they will receive any licensing income.

After all that, THEN you can start trying to license it.