Some questions for TBN'rs in Texas, OK, etc

[wroughtn_harv]

Re: Some questions for TBN\'rs in Texas, OK, etc

I thought I'd do a little update since it's been a couple of months.

The original inspiration for this thread has evolved considerably. The original is in the process for applying for a patent. That is not a simple process. I'm capable of doing it myself I'm sure but there is this little catch twenty two for going that way. It's called credibility.

In the patent world credibility is important. The way you get it is having accepted authorities stamp and officially approve.

A patent only gives the the right to initiate legal action against someone who infringes upon your intellectual property. Without credibility the patent is more likely to be infringed upon because it can be perceived as more vulnerable.

The original idea spun off another idea that's also in the patent process and I believe has more potential for success.

Those ideas have spun off some stuff that I've decided to attempt to market. I think they're innovative and will become accepted. And hopefully they'll generate some funds to power the patent process for the original ones.

This environment that I'm now in is challenging. My nature is to be open. I'm not one to hide an idea from others. If I know how to do something and even if a competitor asks I will share.

But here I am with these products and I have to be aware that others will take the idea and they'll be the ones to profit from them. It's awkward. There's my nature and then in the background harping like an old woman at the wrong time of the month is the attorney doing his darnedest to protect me from myself. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

This whole process is fun. It's challenging but fun. My wife is used to after all these years seeing--hearing me stop in the middle of conversation and stare off into space for a minute. She understands a idea just passed through and I couldn't resist it's pull.

Probably the most fun is figuring out how to produce something.

But all in all the most challenging consideration is keeping the feet on the ground while the head is in the clouds. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

And the sad thing is one really needs both the head in the clouds and the feet on the ground in this environment creating a product. Stretching might be the most accurate term, right?

 

[trailertrash]

Re: Some questions for TBN\'rs in Texas, OK, etc

wroughtn_harv:
I have limited carpenter skills as in : what the heck is a purloin that everyone keeps talking about ?: so if your kit would enable me to build a building without worrying about it falling on one of my dogs I want to be on your customer list asap. Sounds like you're on a roll let me know when and where to buy because with what I've seen of your work and with what I've read I wouldn't be worried about quality or function.

 

[bgott]

Re: Some questions for TBN\'rs in Texas, OK, etc

I worked for a place a couple of years ago that had a couple of guys trading off on spending the day doing nothing but searching patent applications for somebody trying to back door the company's patents. Protecting yourself and your property can sure be time consuming. /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Re: Some questions for TBN\'rs in Texas, OK, etc

The decision to patent or not is not as simple as it sounds. You can go to the USPTO (USPatent Trademark Office) and surf. There you will find patents on the simplest and most wonderful things to patents on the ridiculous. Some of them are gold mines. Most aren't. Having a patent on an idea doesn't guarantee no one will infringe on it. The patent only gives you legal remedy if they do if you have the funds to enforce it.

That's why the credibility issue is so important. Small time operators will infringe because they can most times. Most companies can't afford the legal hassle when the actual cost to them for the infringement is minimal. But if one has a viable and lucrative patent then infringement is not only attractive from the outside looking in but a serious threat from the inside looking out. The more credible and complete the patent the more intimidating it appears to legal attack and is less likely to invite infringement.

Yesterday was an interesting day. I hit the first place I thought might be interested in handling the products. I got the lead from the internet and local yellow page advertising. It was a disappointment. The best way to describe the operation would be "sweatshop". Their perspective is price and price alone. Make it look good and do it as cheap as possible material wise.

Within minutes I realised I was out of place but did the presentation anyway. What I've probably done was provide them with some new products to manufacture and market. But from my perspective that's okay. Distasteful, but okay.

I then had to do business with Midway on Lucy. Afterwards I picked out a company that I felt might be targeting the market I want to have for my products. It was like a hand in a glove meeting. A couple of their contractors came in as I was leaving. The manager showed them some samples and we were off to the races. I was singing to the choir. If you're an egostical son of a gun like myself there are few things more rewarding than having professionals laud your ideas.

Trailertrash, a purlin is a formed piece of channel. If you are familiar with metal studs for construction then you are familiar with the concept of a purlin. The metal studs are usually eighteen gauge, an eighteenth of an inch in metal thickness. The purlins I'm most familiar with are fourteen and twelve gauge. The difference in strength between eighteen and fourteen is not double but more. The engineers on board know the numbers, I just know the feel and application.

All of the product we've produced to this point has and is being given away. It consists of sixteen, fourteen, and twelve gauge sheet metal brackets that enable one to use either two inch square tubing or two and three eighths O.D. tubing and pipe along with four inch fourteen gauge purlins to buld stuctures without welding. Self tapping screws or drilling and bolting along with the designed fit insure integrity of the joinery.

It'd be like you going to HD or Lowes and buying a bunch of two by fours. Let's say you only have inch and a half roofing nails and you want to build a storage building. What you would do would be go to the Simpson Connectors display and buy brackets that would allow you to attach the two by fours together to make different joints. My brackets or connectors work on the same principle.

The other thing that we're producing right now for sale is knotched pipe pieces for two and three eighth pipe fence. One of them allows a cross face joint that is fitted and another allows for a fitted butt weld.

Let's say you're wanting to build a five rail pipe fence for your place. You're being quoted twenty dollars a foot plus by local contractors to cut in and weld up it up. You can weld. But the fitting and cutting is intimidating. You could do it but gawd alone knows how long it would take and what it would look like when it was done.

My products just empowered you to do it yourself and with a little attention to detail, the opportunity to have just as nice a fence as the professionals would put in and, this is great, minimal waste.

The double knotch piece for attaching the rails to the posts. Then there's the straight cut to the saddled joint piece for ending the rails at ends, corners, and gate posts. And I have designed a sleeve to align the rails so that each joint can be welded up tight and straight.

One of the objections some have had to the principle is the corners and how to do the gates etc. After all you have rails on the face of the posts instead of between them.

That's a non issue. You pull a string to mark your post holes. You remove the string and dig the holes. You put the string back up. Then you set the corners, ends, and gate posts on one side of the string. The line posts are set on the other side of the string.

I've got to go make breakfast.

 

[Junkman]

Re: Some questions for TBN\'rs in Texas, OK, etc

for the future you might want to have them sign a contract acknowledging that you are the inventor and that they will not steal your idea. I know of someone that made a plastic wagon for use at car swap meets and tried to sell it to one of the BIG mass merchandisers (name deliberately left out) and that company asked to keep the sample for a week or so to show to other company members. They were allowed to keep it for the week and then "stole" the idea and had it produced over seas. The patent wasn't enough to stop them, because the BIG company had deeper pockets to fend off the law suit..... The original company is no longer around and the BIG company no longer sells the item because of declining sales.... in this case, no one won.... In my opinion, stay away from the BIG guys, because they will steal your ideas and then spit on you when you try to stop them!!!!!