Has anyone developed my idea already?

If you have an idea for a new product, service or innovation then you are probably wondering if anyone has done it before. This is a question which is often asked by the budding entrepreneur and there is no stock answer. This blog post aims to help you find out if someone has developed your idea and more importantly if it has been patented.

It all starts with an idea.

There is nothing quite like the feeling you get when you have an idea for an innovative product. You get excited about how your product can make peoples life easier and how you will be recognised for your achievements.

Become friends with Google.

It is important to protect your idea but it is more important to find out if your idea has been done before. At this stage you should become best friends with Google.com & Espace.net. These search engines will help you find out if someone has developed and launched your product idea already and also if it has been patented.

Google web & Google images is a great way to search the internet for any existing products. You can use words which describe you product idea and Google will find any content which relates to these words. You will need to spend time looking through websites, blogs and images to establish if there is any record of your product idea in the public domain.

Espacenet is a search engine for the Intellectual Property Office where you can search for patents in your field. Patents use a very specific language which is sometimes hard to follow so I would suggest to search for something which already exists to familiarise yourself with the layout. When you open a Patent document you will find a number of titles, the one to focus your attention on is the ‘Claims’. The claims are a list of points which describe the patented and protected elements of the product which cannot be copied.

The next step…

If you complete these processes and find that you are the first person to have the idea then you need to protect it. By familiarising yourself with the patent process you will understand how to protect your idea. It is best to talk to professionals at this stage who can establish if your product idea is feasible and patentability.

You can talk to product development companies like ourselves without a patent and can protect your intellectual property by signing a nondisclosure agreement (NDA). An NDA is a legally binding contract between two people which ensures your ideas are protected.

Links

www.Google.com

http://gb.espacenet.com

http://www.ipo.gov.uk/

http://www.motiontouch.com

How can I sell to Boots and Mothercare etc?

MotionTouch are often asked by innovators with new baby products how they can get their products into the major retailers. Once the product is designed and the manufacturing is in place, focus turns to sales. Although Kiddicare and Babies R Us are very influential, it is invariably Boots and Mothercare that they are referring to. There are different approaches to selling to these mammoth retailers but by far the easiest is to go to an established distributor with a relationship and existing product range in place. There are a couple of reasons for this. Firstly major retailers do not like setting up suppliers on their system who only offer one or two products. Secondly it takes experience and skills to manage the account properly.

MotionTouch work with our clients to assist them in choosing the right distribution partner. There are several significant companies and a number of niche ones. Depending on the product and the entrepreneur’s ambition, the choice of distributor will vary from product to product. Distributors are often part of informal international networks. This can be useful in establishing sales internationally.

In order to approach these retailers you will require consistent quality control, specific assurance and certifications (usually in additional the statutory requirements) and also social responsibility audits). We will deal with these in later articles.

How do MotionTouch suggest that I evaluate my new invention idea?

Hi,

How do MotionTouch suggest that I evaluate my new invention idea?

We are often asked to provide advice on evaluating a new invention. There are a variety of different methods that work. However there are three key factors which are simple but really get to the heart of the issue. In order for a new product idea to be commercially viable you need positive answers to the following three questions:

• Is there a volume market for the product?
• Can the product be made and sold profitably at a price that the market will pay (in volume?)*
• Can you protect the idea from being copied?

This is a simple rule of thumb test. However each of the answers needs careful consideration and research. The answers are not always obvious. One of the biggest mistakes that inventors make is to assume that they know the answers. Intuition and subjective observation is not good enough. If you are not naturally self-effacing then ask others to help evaluate the answers. The right answer can uncover huge opportunity or indeed rethink the idea. The wrong ones can lead you to waste a lot of money. If you think that the answer is yes to all of the above then prove it. Proceed with care…………………..

*Think about the route to market and how many hands it will have to go through to get to the end user.