Invention Engineering

"Designing and Improving your invention for you"

Once your patent is "Pending", which means it has been officially filed, there are several options that can be taken. The first is to try to license or sell the patent before it issues. This is difficult at best, because there is no guarantee that any patent application will issue, and companies don't like to take that risk. A second option is to wait until the patent issues, and then try to license or sell it. This is the least expensive path to take, but the probability of success is small, though determination can accomplish much. A third option is to begin manufacturing at some time after the invention is patent pending. Though "patent pending" status does not provide the inventor with any legal protection, few companies are willing to risk tooling-up and production costs on a product that may be patented by someone else. In this sense a patent pending can actually be better than an actual patent since no one can design their way around your patent since they don't know what is in it. Another option is to wait until the patent issues before beginning production. This has the advantage of giving you legal protection when your product reaches the marketplace. Another advantage is that someone else may bring your invention to market while the patent is pending (2-3 years). If you are the one to get the patent, then you already have a buyer for your patent.

If you take the manufacturing direction, which has the highest percentage of success, then a product must be engineered. This can easily be the most expensive portion of bringing a product to market. When manufacturing a product, the product must be defined exactly. There is no room for any ambiguity or error. In most cases these exact designs are created with Computer Aided Design (CAD) software. Many factors are taken into account to make sure the product will work the way it is suppose to. Material properties, part fit, part interaction, surface texture, functional design, de-molding considerations, operational physics, and durability are just a few of the considerations one must be considered when engineering an actual product.

The cost of engineering can easily out-weigh the cost of actually making injection molds (for plastic parts). On a recent project, we obtained a $120,000 quote to engineer and make molds for a 2 part injection molded product. By doing the engineering ourselves this cost dropped to just $1,500 for prototype testing and $12,088 for the injection molds. This is incredible savings. The good news is that we provide the engineering service as part of our cost-sharing program. You invest only in prototype costs, production molds, and initial inventory production, all of which are paid to third party companies. Even better, the first profits are used to pay back your investment for these expenses. After you have been repaid, InventionMakers will take profits to pay back only expenses incurred from work done on that invention by the primary engineer for engineering, patenting, and manufacturing work(figured on an hourly rate-$85 per hour at present). A flat Office Expense fee rate of $250 per month is added to cover all other expenses. All other costs are absorbed by the company. After these two bills are paid, all profits will be divided in proportion to the percentage ownership in the patent (or patent pending application) or mutually agreed upon royalty rates. What constitutes "profits" will be kept very simple. Profits would simply be: Gross Sales - Costs = Profits. Costs will be calculated at $250 per month for the Office Expense fee, plus direct manufacturing costs(Production, Packaging, Advertising, Handling, Shipping, and Returns). This is all that will constitute "Costs". This simple way of defining "Costs" eliminates the inventors risk that costs will be created that have nothing to do with their product. Since we do all our manufacturing, packaging, advertising, and shipping & handling through third party companies, it is easy to document the actual costs.

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