I work in an industry in which I receive letters from inventors such
as yourself offering to either (a) sell a patent to us so that we may
own the patent and preclude others from making, using, or selling the
patented article so that we effectively have a lawful monopoly on the
article (design), or (b) license the patent to us so that we may make,
use, sell and have made for us the patented article in exchange for a
royalty fee paid to the inventor. I presume from your post that you
are interested in (b), finding a manufacturer who will take a license
to your patent so they can make and sell your patented design.
Alternatively, are you interested in simply finding a manufacturer who
will make them for you and then you market and sell them yourself?
They are broadly different approaches and concepts.
Assuming it really is (b) in which you are interested, what I recited
above is literally and exactly what you do--define a list of pillow or
bedding manufacturers and send them letters describing your patented
design and offering to license the patent to them so they may make use
and sell your design without infringing your patent. This assumes, of
course, that your design is so amazing that the manufacturer would be
interested. Not to downplay the significance of your accomplishment,
but you realize that you can get a patent on just about anything.
Let's say I come up with a unique and novel method for brushing your
teeth. I could literally get a method patent on my process--but what
is the value of such a patent? Are toothbrush manufacturers going to
be interested? No. "People have brushed their teeth for centuries
and did very well long before your patent, thank you very much," they
will say to me. Can I enforce it? As a practical matter, no--how
will I catch infringers?
So, is your pillow design so truly revolutionary that pillow
manufacturers ~must~ have it? In other words, if they don?t take a
license and you grant an exclusive license to their competitor, will
they go out of business because nobody will buy their ?old? body
pillow design any longer? If the answer is no, then you will spend a
lot of time and money trying to license a patent no one is interested
in.
On those facts, you are left to make and sell your patented design on
your own. The risks in doing that are primarily financial?you?ll have
to come up with money for manufacturing, marketing, sales, shipping,
web site, etc. Again, this assumes that somebody will want to buy
your patented design. So let?s further assume that you do it on your
own and it goes like gangbusters?like probono said, at that point,
others will try to enter the market and try to avoid your patent by
engineering around your claims, i.e., make a pillow that looks and
acts exactly like yours without infringing on the claimed design
elements stated in your patent. That is perfectly legal and
appropriate under patent law. At that point, your probably hosed,
unless they have not completely or successfully engineered around your
claims, and then you have to decide in you want to spend $100K
(minimum) suing them for patent infringement.
I did not mean this to be a ?buzz-kill.? It?s great you got a patent.
But unless the patented design is so absolutely phenomenal that
everyone ~must~ have it, you will have a very difficult time (a)
selling the patent, (b) licensing it, or (c) successfully doing it
yourself. There are tens of thousands of patents issued for products
that never saw the light of day for exactly the reasons I mentioned.
It sounds like you still need a Researcher to provide you with a
pillow manufacturers, no? |
