How to sell ideas?

JohnC

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You can't really protect and idea except of course to not tell anyone.

You can get a patent on a way to "implement/execute" that idea, but the patent will only protect that one way/method, so it won't protect against other possible ways to implement/execute that idea.
 
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AHilton

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And, even if you do get a patent on your idea, you must have the resources to defend that patent, otherwise, you lose it.


* At least in the USA; no idea about other parts of the world.
 
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AHilton

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Well, that is, of course, a legal problem for that company. None of the big companies (again, in the USA) would likely accept outside ideas. It's a huge legal problem. If you don't expect ANYTHING from that company concerning your idea, then you *might* get them to even read it. But, probably not. Been there; done that; on both sides of the equation.
 
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AHilton

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haha. You'd have to preemptively sign away all rights and compensation completely before a company would even entertain to accept (much less actually read) a non-solicited idea. Back in my youth, I patented a few things (and promptly lost 2 because of not having the means to defend them) and even did much as what you're looking at doing. Some companies even had forms and addresses to submit ideas. But, after awhile, I found out that those were just dummy boxes. Legally, they couldn't accept them anymore. My business lawyer absolutely forbids us from accepting them. Still, I did manage to sell some patents over the years but you have to be very very careful in how you handle it. HIRE A PATENT LAWYER. If the idea/process is any good, that person pays for themselves many times over. If not, then you're wasting your time and money. Good luck.
 

aeric

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jahswant said:
Some one some where have your same idea.
Click to expand...
I agreed. I once have an idea about an App. I told my girlfriend but she said it won't going to work. Then now I saw a Hong Kong TV series about a start up company doing the app very similar to my idea.
 

Star-Dust

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aeric said:
I agreed. I once have an idea about an App. I told my girlfriend but she said it won't going to work. Then now I saw a Hong Kong TV series about a start up company doing the app very similar to my idea.
Click to expand...
I'd change girl
 

Beja

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If the idea's about a physical product then make it secretly without filing for any patent, and pile up the boxes until next Xmas, then hit the market at once and let everyone copy it.. good for them, you have already made the 20k
 

Magma

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...Do you believe that have an idea for watching videos online in 1998 ?... youtube stole me ---> and the best part can't find my site at internet archives (the-site)... hmmm Google Theories
 
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Spavlyuk

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How much do you expect a company or person to pay just for an idea? Usually there are large costs from developing an idea and creating a product while handling all the edge cases. Then the company would need to market that idea so the employees (and sometimes customers) apply the new idea instead of the old one.
If you're confident about your idea being successful, you could maybe create a tool/service/product and then sell that to the food industry.
 

LucaMs

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How much would a company be willing to pay for an idea if it would allow it to become number one over its competitors? How much do food companies spend on TV advertising?

Ok, I'll explain with an example.

In Italy (but not only) there are many brands of pasta. Imagine if I had a special ingredient in mind that would make the above achievable.

All I have to do is tell the company what the ingredient is; but it's hard to do, protect an idea like this.
 
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