INVENTIONS

[jeffex]

Anyone ever have success with selling thier
inventions to manufacturers. I have a thing I
call "THE WEEDWAXER" I trying to sell to a trimmer
company. It turns your trimmer into a buffing tool
Great for boats and Large vehicles! I have been
able to register my ideas with patent attorneys
but a patent is BIG MONEY. I came up with a
hydraulic lift table called the "GATE CREEPER" to
lift large mowers high enough to get them through
small gates. I'm working on a simple snowplow
that fits my 36" walkbehind. It survived our first
snow so I'll work on that this winter.
THERE ARE LOTS OF INVENTIONS AND ADAPTATIONS
MENTIONED ON THIS SITE THAT SEEM TO HAVE MARKETABILITY

[jeffyr]

The gate creeper sounds interesting.
Can you explain ?


jeffyr

[jeffex]

The gatecreeper is a hydraulic lift table. it is
30" wide w/turf wheels it will store on your
trailer 30'' by 4ft. It has paddles like on a
car lift that fold out to adjust to the size of
wb you slide the paddles under the deck pump
up the lift lable over the 4 ft fence and push
the lift table through the gate then lower the
hydraulic lift table and your mowing with a full
size wb the 10 min you waste on this you more
than save rather than using th 21" mower It
also doubles as a service lift for your mower

[jeffex]

I'll see if I can dig up my drawing

[fdew]

Well I still have my no ramp trailer
http://www.lbpinc.com/trailer.html

Frank

[chrisbolte]

that would be nice to work on bottom of mower.

[Greenkeepers]

You said pump it up?? How does this work with a handpump or by hydraulics?

[jay]

I sent in a idea to that company that advertises to patent ideas but got no reply back. How do you go about patenting a idea, is it expensive? Who's the best person to talk to?

[Hardy Enterprises]

I am a mechanical engineer. Although we did not have a class that dealed specifically with patents we did discuss them in a class called mechanical systems design. First thing you do before disclosing any information about a new design to anyone is have the person sign a paper basically saying that they cannot patient any of the ideas that you tell them in their name. Putting your ideas on the internet is definitly not advisible. Somebody that knows what they are doing could have a patent on your idea before you ever figure out how to patent it. Obtaining a patent can be a costly and time consuming task. Generally you need to find a someone skilled in obtaining patents who is willing to take your idea through the step. We was told in our class that if we had an idea that we was interested in obtaining a patent on we could go through the school. These were the basics step if we wanted to go through the school. First contact a professor from the department and have him sign the above mention form. Tell him the idea, if he thought is was a good idea he would setup a meeting where you would present your idea to a board. This board would then decide if your idea was good (meaning it was marketable and profitable). If they decide to go forward with the idea the university has a patent search performed. This is see if your idea has already been patented. If your idea is new and it is decided that it will be profitable the university will then pay for all patenting cost and take care of all legal issue for you. In return they get 10% of net profits from this patent for 10 years(The percentages and number of year might not be right but it's something like that) after that it is all yours. I am sure that there are other university that do the same thing as well as business that specialize in this type of thing. One thing about doing it this way is that if somebody agree to do all this work you pretty much know you got something. These people aren't going to waste there time and money if they don't think you have a profitable idea.

Jay

[jeffex]

The form you get them to sign is called a
non-disclosure form. You can make one up or
go to smart agreements.com. My trial and much
error experience so far has given me this game
plan for the winter. Pick a company and e-mail
thier intellectual properties dept. a non-disclosure
form . If they sign and return it then fax them
your idea and see if they are willing to procede
with developement. One of my lawn customers works
in the patent developement dept. for a biochemical
company. She says I can do the patent search myself
and pay the patent fee. Her best estimate to go
through the whole process with one of the companys
that assists you in getting a patent is $8000 to
$10,000. I have many other Ideas for products but
I need to get my first break. As for someone stealing
my idea that one I already freely gave up to a hydraulic
lift table company. I hope they produce it so I can buy
one. Live and learn. I did register the idea with a
patent attorney so it gives me a year before they can
steal it.

[jeffex]

Back in the fall there was a guy who made a piece
to fit on the front of your wb to prevent leaf blow
out at the front. He made it on a brake out of alum.
Those are products you can make your self and sell
yourself. If your out there did you have any success?

[Stonewall]

Jeffex,

Do you know who made the aluminum piece to keep the leaf blowout from the front of decks?

[pace lawn care]

Stonewall

I didn't make the aluminum piece, but I do use a piece of brush off an overhead door, and it works very well for grass and leaves.

[fdew]

I have been through the patent process both on my own and for others. It is not hard but will take some time. You can do the patent search your self and it is kind of fun. The steps are;

First test the idea in your own head. It needs to be unique, useful, and non obvious to a person skilled in that trade. And it can not be in the public domain (Don’t tell all of us) BTW if you have already built and sold them then it is in the public domain. If you have built one only for your own use that is ok.

The over the gate device sounds like it fits, but don’t tell us how it works if you want to patent it.

BTW If you work for any one else check with your company. You may have signed something that says if you invent something, they own it. If you have then you will need to get them to grant a written exception for your idea. If you don’t, your patent will be worthless to you.

Document your idea and when you thought of it.
This is usually done using a bound (not loose leaf) note book. Sketch your idea, describe it, put in any and all thoughts. Don’t skip any pages and date every entry. It doesn’t have to be neat. It is only to be used as evidence if you need to prove your patent. From time to time take your note book to a trusted person and have them write in the note book that they have read and understand what you have written. Have them date there statement.

When you are ready for a patent search call your library and ask where there is a library with all the patent records. (There are a number of them.) Go to the library and have the librarian show you how the categories and numbering work and get you started on a search. When the search is completed, assuming you still want a patent you will need a patent lawyer.

Theoretically you can do it your self but patents are written in a very precise and odd way, also patent drawings are unique (It drove me crazy that I am a CAD designer but I couldn’t do my own patent drawings.) Also your patent will be turned down (It is standard) and a trip to Washington DC will be required. Your lawyer will know this and will go there about 4 times a year and take care of all his customers at one time. The whole thing can cost as little as $2500

Frank

[jeffex]

I can't remamber who had the idea for the alum.
piece.

[jay]

Thanks this has been helpful. The patenting process sounds really fun.Lol

[Stonewall]

Gary,

How did you mount the brush on the front of the deck? I have a problem with leaf blowout on the discharge side of the deck while I'm bagging. Think it would work there too?