Inventing, Licensing, Royalties, Oh my!

[Wilford]

Hi everyone. I have an important question about how to get this idea I have for a product into something that I can sell to someone to get passive income.

I have no previous knowledge of Inventing, Licensing, royalties, patents, etc. and I am wondering if anyone can help me out so I don't screw up.

I've done a bit of reading in some money books that said that it's better to get passive royalty payments (as in a % of total money made from the idea) rather than to just sell the idea outright. Makes sense because it's better to get small amounts of passive income that come one after another for a long time, rather than just one large lump sum that would probably not add up to the other's total.

Anyways, As far as I know, I need to first make a prototype and then I think I need to get a patent for it. After that, I can perhaps send a letter to a few companies of interest to tell them about it and see if they wish to use my idea. Hopefully someone would accept and mass produce it and give me royalties.

Obviously, I want to make it so this idea cannot be stolen before it is totally claimed by me, otherwise it would not be a good idea to send out letters describing the item, I'm sure. I just have no idea how to start.

I'm going to start googling and researching, but if anyone has any suggestions at all, please tell me.

If you're wondering, it's a piece of headware/accessory that is based off a existing TV show. I figure i'd have to get the rights from the tv show to use it too...


Any info would be wonderful! Thanks!
-Wilford

[Brutha]

Ideas are a dime a dozen. If you can't make your idea happen on your own, it not very likely to succeed with it.

In addition you can't directly patent a certain object. You patent a method of archiving a certain result.

[Wilford]

Anyone? I'd really like somewhere to start at least.

[jenno]

My friend's uncle just started up his own plastics manufacturing company. If you're interested I suppose I can give you his contact info. If your product is plastic, usually plastics manufacturers need 6-8 weeks to create the mold for your product from an Auto CAD design (think of it as photoshop but for 3d designs). But his company uses a new method of manufacturing which takes only days and a fraction of the cost to create the mold and a few sample pieces. If your product is plastic, I suggest you go this route as you'll need a solid prototype before selling it anywhere.