Designing & Licensing A Product
Discussion
I have some ideas for four "tools" and for two "products" relating to the electrical contracting industry, I'm 99% certain theres a market as I would use them for all of my own jobs and my staff would happily use the "tools". Everything would be priced sub £20 (tools) and the products would be sub £1 each, but used in larger numbers and are needed on most commercial jobs. Both the tools and the products would appeal to all cable related trades i.e fire alarm installers, AV installers, intruder alarm installers and it's not country-specific, so they could be used all over the world.
The products are very useful, can save time and money and potentially also money in cost of purchase as well compared to the alternatives. I've not seen anything on the market like it. I think the two product ideas are patentable but haven't looked into it yet. One of the products is so simple to design and manufacture I'd be tempted to pursue it on it's own.
The tools aren't new, there are competitors, my idea is different/better, potentially cheaper than alternatives but I wouldn't necessary be looking to be the cheapest.. One of the tools may be patentable, the others not.
All tools would be made out of solid ABS plastic and are fairly similar, they aren't complicated and are all fairly similar.
I have a lot of stuff on the go and no real capital so manufacturing myself is probably out of the question. So where does that leave me? Do I need to get them properly designed, prototyped and patented then approach a market leader in the industry? How do you even come up with a licensing deal and how do you know how many they sell etc? Has anyone done anything similar and actually got anywhere with it?
The products are very useful, can save time and money and potentially also money in cost of purchase as well compared to the alternatives. I've not seen anything on the market like it. I think the two product ideas are patentable but haven't looked into it yet. One of the products is so simple to design and manufacture I'd be tempted to pursue it on it's own.
The tools aren't new, there are competitors, my idea is different/better, potentially cheaper than alternatives but I wouldn't necessary be looking to be the cheapest.. One of the tools may be patentable, the others not.
All tools would be made out of solid ABS plastic and are fairly similar, they aren't complicated and are all fairly similar.
I have a lot of stuff on the go and no real capital so manufacturing myself is probably out of the question. So where does that leave me? Do I need to get them properly designed, prototyped and patented then approach a market leader in the industry? How do you even come up with a licensing deal and how do you know how many they sell etc? Has anyone done anything similar and actually got anywhere with it?
I would look at the best nearby university - seems like lots of them are geared up for commercial development of novel ideas - they might even offer some sort of funding or innovation voucher scheme whereby you could end up with industry contacts as well as manufacturing files and a set of rapid prototypes as proof of concept - they have overlap between their business and engineering departments in order to offer commercialisation advice as well as product development.
That would make your case much stronger if it's already proved out and it seems like RP would be the perfect platform for your product which the university should also be able to provide. Or, you could fling a few hundred to some RP/CAD guru and see if you can work it out on the cheap, maybe at some sort of Makerspace.
One way of getting it out there could be to get the RPs done to make sure it works, get a meeting with someone up the chain of command at a trade electrical products wholesaler who produce catalogues. Offer them the exclusive rights to sell your product under their brand - but if you go down the licensing route you're likely to get a single figure percentage - however if you can get it licensed with a global company, you're laughing.
Sometimes it's as simple as finding the right department on the potential licensee's website and making contact.
That would make your case much stronger if it's already proved out and it seems like RP would be the perfect platform for your product which the university should also be able to provide. Or, you could fling a few hundred to some RP/CAD guru and see if you can work it out on the cheap, maybe at some sort of Makerspace.
One way of getting it out there could be to get the RPs done to make sure it works, get a meeting with someone up the chain of command at a trade electrical products wholesaler who produce catalogues. Offer them the exclusive rights to sell your product under their brand - but if you go down the licensing route you're likely to get a single figure percentage - however if you can get it licensed with a global company, you're laughing.
Sometimes it's as simple as finding the right department on the potential licensee's website and making contact.
If the designs are quite simple, I'd be happy to help out a PHer free of charge with some CAD designs. I use CAD almost every day so it should be pretty easy to bounce some stuff backwards and forwards.
If you make your millions, just bung me a crate of beer and a mention on your website or somesuch!
If you make your millions, just bung me a crate of beer and a mention on your website or somesuch!
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