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Concept Feasibility
Re: How to Engineer your Idea to Market -- kelly_bramble	Post Reply	Top of thread	Forum

Posted by: kelly_bramble ® 11/30/2005, 14:49:29 Author Profile eMail author Edit

-- Concept Feasibility -- Does your idea product or system really work? This is where you need to be sure. Does your idea violate any laws of physics? Thermal challenges, flow, loading, or structural? Can you model your idea, either physically or analytically? If it is simple enough, you may not need to. However, complex systems may need a significant amount of research and analysis. If you have a trusted friend or two, whom are very competent, share the idea. Two or more brains are better than one... Can your ideal be manufactured with existing materials and technologies? Do you require an exotic material to make it work? Remember that thread we had on Engineers Edge on the so called revolutionary engine? The engine designers claimed all sorts of fantasy technologies would be used. One of which was ceramic pistons. Their claim was that ceramic pistons would not expand and therefore would not introduce friction into the system. Well, ceramics are quite brittle, remember the space shuttle ceramic panels falling off after being clobbered by foam? using ceramics in a engine combustion chamber (read high shock and pressure loading) maybe a little beyond current technological capabilities of the material. Just keep in mind, engineering your product is going to be enough work without having to invent a bunch of new technologies to make it work. How much does it cost? Here is where you need to do a preliminary estimate of costs to engineer and manufacture your idea. In general, this is where all new products are first tested for feasibility. Do a assembly part count, materials, custom parts, equipment required to engineer, test, or manufacture. Spread sheet the system out and assign costs or what ever viable metric is required. Each delivered product should have design and engineering hours, assembly hours, testing hours, and other manufacturing related costs assigned. Don't forget a preliminary estimate for your marketing effort. Even if these are rough numbers, this should give you an idea of what is required. Keep in mind, that your initial estimate will probably be low. Understanding costs can be tricky. Most of us engineering types do not have significant experience in estimating a new products costs. Unless you have experience in estimating you may be way off. If you know somebody with direct experience in estimating new products similar to yours, run the numbers by them. I would not worry about a competitive analysis yet, however this will need to be done as well. Keep in mind that sometimes all that is required to beat the competition is to be more efficient. Moreover, if you can keep your overhead, personnel costs in check, then you should be able to compete effectively. Additionally, do not let your estimate scare the toe-jam out of you. Just because you do not have a sizable inheritance from your aunt Gertrude does not mean you should give up. Remember - this is only an estimate! Modified by kelly_bramble at Wed, Nov 30, 2005, 14:55:33

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Product, Market, and Competition Research
Re: Concept Feasibility -- kelly_bramble	Post Reply	Top of thread	Forum

Posted by: kelly_bramble ® 12/05/2005, 13:06:04 Author Profile eMail author Edit

Product, Market, and Competition Research Ok, you have a good idea of what your product or innovation is, what it does, and maybe where one could use it. Now you need to scope out similar or exact products, and understand how you fit in. First, let's define some key marketing definitions and disciplines. Marketing research (also called consumer research) is a form of business research. It is a form of applied sociology, which concentrates on understanding the behaviors, whims and preferences, of consumers in a market-based economy. Market research is broader in scope and examines all aspects of a business environment. It asks questions about competitors, market structure, government regulations, economic trends, technological advances, and numerous other factors that make up the business environment. Product research - This looks at what products can be produced with available technology, and what new product innovations near-future technology can develop. Advertising research - This attempts to assess the likely impact of an advertising campaign in advance, and also measure the success of a recent campaign. The research that you need to do is a combination of each of the above. So, how do you start this process? Simple, first define (write on something) words, or concepts which best describe your product function and application. Next, open another web browser (just like this one), visit www.google.com, and enter those keywords that might find a web page or two which best fits your product or innovation. Don't be shy about writing an email, or calling a company and asking questions about their product. Just do not tell them what you up to. Your might tell them that you are an application engineer with your-name (or your real company name), Incorporated and you need to talk to sales about a product you are looking for. When you find a product similar to yours, ask the company contact where else it can be used, who else uses the product. Ask them to send information to you, pictures, and performance specifications, general or specific costing information. Ask them who their competiton (who else sells the product). If you are thinking that this all seems like you are being a spy or something, well get over it, I can tell you as a business person, that my competition is checking up on me often. Now, you may not find an exact application of your product or innovation. Your market and product research may produce ideals on how your product fits in to industry. Don't make the mistake of assuming that your product only fits in with retail consumers. Most products in the world are not sold at Walmart, or the grocery store, in fact they are sold for industrial or commercial use. So here is a possible checklist of your market research activity (yours should be tailored to your application): What are applications? Can you repackage, and sell for a different application? Who are the major players that sell a similar product? How many do they sell quarterly, yearly? How much do they sell it for? Wholesale? Consumer price? What are other applications? How does your competition use and resell the product? I'm sure there are other fundamental questions that are missing above. Just be creative, thorough, as this is mission critical research. Be sure you spend enough time researching the market and understanding existing products and your competition. The hard work that you put in now, should better position you to know how to proceed with your product or innovation, as well as compete and market successfully

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Protecting Your Ideal / Invention
Re: Product, Market, and Competition Research -- kelly_bramble	Post Reply	Top of thread	Forum

Posted by: kelly_bramble ® 12/10/2005, 20:14:40 Author Profile eMail author Edit

Protecting your invention or ideal may be paramount to your realizing any reward or financial gain. By far the best way to protect your invention is to obtain a patent covering it. Though, I would recommend you analyze your economic opportunities to ensure you don't waste money to protect your invention. If you will only gain a few thousand dollars ever from the sale of products resulting from your idea, I would not worry to much about spending your hard earned money protecting your ideal. Keep in mind, that often an ideal or invention maybe just an improvement in a process, or technique. In this case you should evaluate the possibilities of just keeping your month shut. If you have secured a competitive edge by being more efficient than your competition and they never know how, well you won. Do you need a patent, trademark, and/or copyright? A patent- (Utility, Design, or Plant) is granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office of the right to stop others from making, using or selling an invention in the United States for a limited period of time. An idea itself is not patentable; patents are only appropriate for useful things or methods of doing something. Trademarks - are words, names, symbols, devices and/or use images which are applied to products or used in connection with goods or services to identify their source. Copyrights - protect the expression of ideas in literary, artistic and musical works. Copyright are automatically applied to any original copy, such as this forum thread What can be patented - utility patents are provided for a new, non-obvious and useful: Process Machine Article of manufacture Composition of matter Improvement of any of the above Note: In addition to utility patents, encompassing one of the categories above, patent protection is available for ornamental design of an article of manufacture or asexually reproduced plant varieties by design and plant patents. What cannot be patented: Laws of nature Physical phenomena Abstract ideas Literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works (these can be Copyright protected). Inventions which are: Not useful or possible (such as perpetual motion machines); or Offensive to public morality, hum... Invention must also be: Novel Nonobvious Adequately described or enabled (for one of ordinary skill in the art to make and use the invention) Claimed by the inventor in clear and definite terms So, you think you need a patent? first things you do is a search of all public disclosures including, but not limited to, ly patented inventions in the U.S. This should be conducted to determine if your invention has been publicly disclosed and thus is not patentable. A search of foreign patents and printed publications should also be conducted if you plan on selling internationally. How long does a patent apply? Utility and plant patents are granted for a term which begins with the date of the grant and usually ends 20 years from the date you first applied for the patent subject to the payment of appropriate maintenance fees. Design patents last 14 years from the date you are granted the patent. No maintenance fees are required for design patents. What does a patent cost? Well this depend on who you ask. When I visit lawyer websites they say from $8,000 to $100,000, which bothers me a little. The patent office says you will pay at least $2,000 for a minimal patent and more, depending on the complexity. According to actual statistics, the median reported by U.S. patent attorneys for the year 2002 was $5,504 in fees for services, plus actual out-of-pocket costs such as the government filing fee, to prepare and file an original non-provisional U.S. utility patent application on an invention of "minimal complexity." There are three basic fees for utility patents: The filing fee, which is non-refundable whether or not a patent is granted. (This is the cost to have your invention "examined" by the US Patent and Trademark Office - remember, you may or may not get a patent!) The issue fee (you pay this only if your application is allowed) Maintenance fees (paid at 3 1/2, 7 1/2, and 11 1/2 years after your patent is granted - these fees "maintain" your legal protection). And of course, additional fees may be required. Typical fees are as follows (these are only intended to give you a "ballpark" estimate) these fees do not reflect all the possible variations in filing and patenting your invention - also, these fees are subject to change - thus, you are strongly advised to check the current fee schedule before submitting your application. Filing a provisional application. $100 Filing a non-provisional application. Approximately $150* Issue fee Approximately $650 Maintenance fees: Due at 3 1/2 years Due at 7 1/2 years Due at 11 1/2 years Approximately $450 Approximately $1150 Approximately $1900 *Does not include the search fee or examination fee. Do you need a patent lawyer? Well, everybody says you do. I can't help but wonder exactly what do they do for a simple patent? Do they manage and file the paper work for you? I know that you will pay a fee for the patent office to conduct a search to ensure your patent does not infringe or already is in existence. Never the less, the patent application process is complex. If you are ready to apply for a patent, I strongly advise you contact a registered patent attorney or agent. By the way, only registered attorneys and agents may help others to obtain patents. Note: Additionally, you can purchase a copy (I paid $3.00 on December 20, 2005 for a copy of Google's search patent).   Modified by kelly_bramble at Wed, Dec 21, 2005, 09:11:20

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Estimating Manufacturing Product Costs.
Re: Protecting Your Ideal / Invention -- kelly_bramble	Post Reply	Top of thread	Forum

Posted by: kelly_bramble ® Administrator 12/19/2005, 14:12:53 Author Profile eMail author Edit

Cost to Build - Manufacturing Product Costs. This will either bore you, verify I'm a real engineer, or educate you. Before you start your serious marketing effort, you need to understand the real costs and commitment to manufacture. This doesn't mean you need to build a bunch of your widgets, just get a grip on the actual costs and lead times.  You should already have a parts list, put this list in your favorite format (I prefer excel). Within your parts list, you may consider the following attributes;  Purchased parts - Off the shelf components or assemblies Custom Designed parts - These have to be manufactured Quantities required for each assembly Weight List misc. parts as well. - This means bolts, screws, glues, gaskets, etc. Assembly or time or costs  Testing times or costs You now need to identify which parts or assemblies require detail design, and which you will be purchasing from a supplier. First lets start with the parts you will be purchasing and integrating into your concept. You need at least five quotes initially in various quantities. This will ensure you have done your home work and understand your options. You should realize significant cost saving per part or assembly for higher quantity purchases. If not, ask the potential vendor "why not?". You are the best person to judge quantities to quote, however I would recommend quantities of 10, 100, 500, 1000, and more. Depending on the product, you should see dramatic savings around a few hundred units. Keep in mind, that it is not a good ideal to specify commodity parts which are proprietary. If this is required to achieve your performance objectives, try to design out proprietary parts. Parts and components which can be exchanged at a later date with a different supplier tend to be less expensive.  Moreover, you don't want to be at the mercy of a single companies pricing whims, stability, or long lead time issues. Next, for those custom designed parts or assemblies, you are going have to do or get some design drafting done. This is where non-engineers or designers often trip up. An understanding of design drafting, manufacturing capabilities and practical design requirements are required to produce a effective design drawing. Rarely is anybody an expert in all of these disciplines, and I mean engineers and designers as well.. Be sure to have an expert in several technical disciplines review your design. Pay particular attention to the manufacturing requirements, as asking for tight mechanical tolerances or other requirements may drive your manufacturing and production costs through the roof. If you think drafting is trivial, you haven't talked to a machinist or other manufacturing professional in a while. One of the most costliest mistakes made in industry by experienced designers and engineers is over specifying dimensional requirements, non-standard drafting practices, or sloppy and hard to understand design drawings. If you have very particular design and fit requirements, you might consider utilizing the skills of an engineering professional experienced in geometric dimensioning and tolerancing ( GD&T ). The current standard is ASME Y14.5M - 1994. This design drawing standard is in use throughout the world, so if you have to have parts manufactured in Taiwan, or Columbia, you are covered. The best book to help you is um, err, well,  mine. Geometric Boundaries - Interpretation and Application of Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing. I use this book in all of my training seminars and classes throughout the USA.  Oh, and you can buy the book right here on Engineers Edge - . After you have created your design drawings, had it or them checked at least three times, you are ready to send these out for a quote. It is a really good practice to have a meeting (phone) with each of the manufacturing organizations providing a quote and their staff experts after they have had time to review your drawings. Ask them what could be done to the part or assembly design to reduce costs, or complexity. Manufacturing personnel are the most effective source of innovative ideals to reduce the recurring costs of products  When you are done with this process, you should have a detailed list of the following Parts quantities and their perspective costs, weight, lead times. Next is the most challenging, you need to estimate assembly time (if any). This is where clever design and manufacturing pays off. Will it take ten minutes or thirty hours to assembly, test, and package (ship) your product? This should be a line item on your parts list with a column indicating hours converted to cost. Ever wonder why many consumer products require assembly? Many manufacturers are aware that this helps reduce the consumers cost, simplifies the shipping and packaging. Often, assembly costs make up 50% or more of the delivered products costs. The following are some great resources on Engineers Edge to assist you in creating practical design drawing. Standard Hardware - nut, bolts, ect.. Corrosion Knowledge - you don't want to design in a rust problem Design for Manufacturability - Good stuff! Assembly Mass Worksheet - Need to know how much it weights Mechanical Drawing Formats Download - If you don't already have them Drafting Guide Menu Wrench Clearance Chart - Can you assembly it? Seriously? Manufacturing Processes Menu - Overviews Standard Size Drills Chart - Most components have holes in them Tap pre-drilled hole size Material Properties Knowledge Free Engineering Calculators Mechanical Tolerance Charts and Guide - The looser you can live with, the less expensive your design will be! Products Providers and Companies Services / Manufacturing Providers and Companies 40,000 more documents on design, manufacturing and engineering stuff Search - faster than reading all 40,000 documents Modified by kelly_bramble at Mon, Dec 19, 2005, 14:36:43

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Re: Protecting Your Ideal / Invention - (having used legal counsel)
Re: Protecting Your Ideal / Invention -- kelly_bramble	Post Reply	Top of thread	Forum

Posted by: randykimball ® 12/11/2005, 09:26:32 Author Profile eMail author Edit

FYI: patent application & expense experience, ... do you need counsel? Patent # 6,250,326 B1 is owned by a company I was working for and was conceived by myself. Being the mind that conceived the device my name appears first on the patent. The president of the company and my supervisor's names appear after mine in the "et al" method. On most following pages their names are missing and simply the words "et al" follow my name. This gives me no control, nor ownership of the patent except for the pride of conception (it saves lives) and resume accomplishments. We did use counsel for which the total fee ended up, to the best of my knowledge, at around $7K. Legal counsel did do an intense job of background digging for patents of similar devices, their function, challenged history, and the many abstracts written on those patents. Legal counsel also wrote the abstract for the patent of which was paired up with my drawings. It takes an experienced patent attorney to write the abstract as to assure that other attorneys in the future do not find it as simple to get around your patent. The background and challenge history searches provide knowledge with which to better defend the new patent application via language against future challenges. An experienced patent attorney will know the jargin and guidelines to accomplish this. The total abstract package for our patent request is about 40 pages long, and the device is simple. Will I use a patent attorney the next time I apply for a patent, ... YOU BET !! There is no way I would have known how to research and protect that patent with the skill demonstrated by counsel. I now know that the description and presentation of the patent application makes a clear difference as to if the patent is accepted and if it is able to stand defiant against future challenges. If there have ever been any similar inventions, the patent application must clearly define the differences. In my case there were other patents for devices that attempted to accomplish a similar task of which simply weren't performing well. My device contained a new "gagget" which vastly improved performance. So, it was the newly conceived "gagget" that we requested a patent on. We would not have known to submit on the merits of the "gagget" . ... and we would have failed. ... but now the patent will be difficult to defeat with a similar device. In conclusion: Use an experienced patent attorney trained in the "art" of patent abstract application, or your patent may not be worth the paper it is written on when it is challenged. Someone could make a tiny change in your idea and get a new patent as an improved version. There are attorneys making their living figuring out ways around patents. My patent is on a "needed" improvement to an already patented concept. The worst suggestion of your lifetime may be the catalyst to the grandest idea of the century, never let suggestions go unsaid nor fail to listen to them. Modified by randykimball at Sun, Dec 11, 2005, 10:28:18

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Re: Protecting Your Ideal / Invention - (having used legal counsel)
Re: Re: Protecting Your Ideal / Invention - (having used legal counsel) -- randykimball	Post Reply	Top of thread	Forum

Posted by: bechis1 ® 12/23/2005, 19:16:32 Author Profile eMail author Edit

I have heard horror stories about people that have pursued patenting a design only to have it stolen and marketed even before the patent was issued. Many big companies search the patent applications daily, waiting for great ideas which they then bring to market faster than you ever could. It takes a couple of years for a patent to be granted after you make initial application. Sure you can sue, if you have the funds to do so, but by then the market may have already been saturated with the product. Given the resources of large companies and the goliath vs. the little guy problem, the company manipulates the truth and it becomes difficult to prove who had the idea first. The courts side with the established company with its unlimited resources and lawyers. Have you heard of this problem? Is it better to put your resources into trying to sell your idea to a big company, or hit the market right away by producing the product on your own, even before pursuing the patent? Make your money before the big guy gets a chance.

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Re: Protecting Your Ideal / Invention - (having used legal counsel)
Re: Re: Protecting Your Ideal / Invention - (having used legal counsel) -- bechis1	Post Reply	Top of thread	Forum

Posted by: randykimball ® 12/24/2005, 01:00:06 Author Profile eMail author Edit

If you have a patent pending and it is stolen and the company makes a lot of money.... you may wish to sue... it could be worth money to get your share... and a lawyer may would do the case for a share. A patent is protected from such theft as I understand the process by the date of the application. Now, realize I am not a lawyer, but this is my understanding of the legal process of patents. The problem is they may improve on your idea with their team of engineers and deeper pockets. This is why it so important to properly research and present the abstract. The worst suggestion of your lifetime may be the catalyst to the grandest idea of the century, never let suggestions go unsaid nor fail to listen to them.

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Re: Protecting Your Ideal / Invention - (having used legal counsel)
Re: Re: Protecting Your Ideal / Invention - (having used legal counsel) -- randykimball	Post Reply	Top of thread	Forum

Posted by: kelly_bramble ® 12/21/2005, 09:31:45 Author Profile eMail author Edit

I just searched and read your patent at the patent office website (see above link), pretty cool!

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Re: Protecting Your Ideal / Invention - (having used legal counsel)
Re: Re: Protecting Your Ideal / Invention - (having used legal counsel) -- kelly_bramble	Post Reply	Top of thread	Forum

Posted by: randykimball ® 12/21/2005, 23:29:59 Author Profile eMail author Edit

... Thanx... It was one of those, "take a look at these competive products and see if you can come up with something that works right?". I looked... and said, "those won't work". .. and I had a clear opinion of why they failed. It was the understanding of why they failed that caused me to awake that very Saturday about 3"AM with a solve. It was a piece of cake from there. The amazing thing to me is how the human mind will solve problems you have presented it with during the night while in a more balanced state... then additionally amazing is how the solve is presented to our "awake" mind set (in this case I was awakened) in some abstract language that we instantly convert to some kind of picture format... and then logic out into a working machine. .. and IN SECONDS. ... I went to work and modeled the concept.. I LOVE BEING AN ENGINEER !!! The worst suggestion of your lifetime may be the catalyst to the grandest idea of the century, never let suggestions go unsaid nor fail to listen to them.

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Re: How to Engineer your Idea to Market
Re: How to Engineer your Idea to Market -- kelly_bramble	Post Reply	Top of thread	Forum

Posted by: randykimball ® 11/29/2005, 21:14:50 Author Profile eMail author Edit

one word, K O O L ! great idea... I'm there. The worst suggestion of your lifetime may be the catalyst to the grandest idea of the century, never let suggestions go unsaid nor fail to listen to them.

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Re: How to Engineer your Idea to Market
Re: How to Engineer your Idea to Market -- kelly_bramble	Post Reply	Top of thread	Forum

Posted by: Gary Kemp ® 11/29/2005, 20:16:25 Author Profile eMail author Edit

please clarify "BTW Copyrights are in effect."

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Re: How to Engineer your Idea to Market
Re: Re: How to Engineer your Idea to Market -- Gary Kemp	Post Reply	Top of thread	Forum

Posted by: kelly_bramble ® 11/29/2005, 20:48:30 Author Profile eMail author Edit

I don't want anybody to reprint this thread on another medium. I plan to add a bunch..

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Re: How to Engineer your Idea to Market
Re: Re: How to Engineer your Idea to Market -- kelly_bramble	Post Reply	Top of thread	Forum

Posted by: HCBFlash ® 12/07/2005, 21:31:40 Author Profile eMail author Edit

other considerations: will your product become obsolete from foreseeable events? will it be stuck in a shrinking market? will it be easy to "reverse engineer", copy, get produced and sold cheaper?

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