Does anyone have experience registering/patents of inventions?

[John Orchard]

Was just wondering if anyone here has any experience registering inventions?  I have designed a  low-noise / low-restriction car & motorcycle muffler.

[Viper79]

I had a friend that was going to register an idea for mobile phones and was told that they would have to re mortgage the house to do it and you have to keep re registering the idea as the years go by. 

[Tim754]

There be specialists Law firms that handle patent registrations . Now if lawyers do it that tells you shitloads of cash change hands to get anywhere ...slowly...  only then other countries that assume "copyright" means "right to copy" just make junk imitations for peanuts and screw ya anyway. :'(

[80-85 husky]

one thing I do know is that if its any good, before you can blink, someone else will have stolen the idea and registered it. its a cut throat dirty business. I would research research research on the net, the law and look for examples everywhere to see who are respected patent lodgers. check out back issues of the inventors shows around and see who was successful and see if you can talk to them.
there was a show recently about the beach bum from Byron who invented a new beehive that's making him millions. he was a cool guy.
 I think anyone can do it. its the fine print that's decides what you actually end up controlling and that's the rub!

[Lozza]

Was just wondering if anyone here has any experience registering inventions?  I have designed a  low-noise / low-restriction car & motorcycle muffler.

I was told by a retired patents solicitor that from a 1000 good ideas for new products 100 will make it to prototype stage, from that 100 10 will get a pat pending and of those 10 only 1 product will be successful in being granted a full US patent.  If you are granted a patent it is no guarantee  of success in the market.
First is a search of existing patents, which you could do yourself. There are very few new ideas in the world.

But don't let that stop you I was looking into trademarks and happened upon where the Australian Grand Prix Corporation lodged a trademark application for "Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix" about a month before I was there. Spewin.
 

[Slakewell]

ok I could explain ,I think it's best from a person who has gone down this path to say , I would never do it again.
Short answer, Give me 5k and Ill give yah a good kick in the nuts , 3 months later when everyone has robbed ya and kick you / Ill buy you a beer and say sorry for kicking you in the nuts and you will thank me.

Im sure you will know better and go around in a bigger circle like the thousand before you and end up getting kick in the nuts and have no beer.

[Mike52]

We had a patient on a gadget for the pacific region.
Don't know much about it as I only made the things but nobody copied them.
Probably not enough money in them to bother.
Now a low restriction motorcycle muffler that works may be worth copying.
I could use one right now for my Xr400.

If you go to the Australian Export enhancement department they will tell you to get them made in China

[FourstrokeForever]

Years ago I had a registered patent for the design of a new invention. Shame battery technology wasn't what it is now........
Anyway, I went into the patent registration floor of some government building in Sydney and did my own search for anything similar to my idea. That in itself took all day but saves a lot of cash by not going to some patent solicitor who will do the search for you.
Seeing as I had already done my detail drawings, I registered my design there and then. From memory it was around $50 to register the design. The idea of registering the design is in case you get someone else to manufacture your "prototype" and the registration protects you from them claiming it's their idea.
Once you have a working prototype then you can apply for the patent, which is when you need a solicitor. You NEED a registered patent BEFORE you start manufacturing or as sure as water runs downhill, someone will steal your invention.

[mic]

I just got a provisional patent.

Any type of Patent is only enforceable in the countries that are part of the patent treaty, so china can make it but cannot export to countries that are members of the patent treaty, well they can but its customs job to detect and stop patent protected items.

I had a provisional patent which also gives you 12 months protection in all treaty member countries.

It has just expired and i am not following it through but still selling the product, cost me 4k and it would cost me another 4k plus similar for each country you want protection in.

[John Orchard]

Hmmm, thanks for the feedback, I will go ahead and make a few samples and see if it is practicable for me to start production.  Maybe dangle a carrot to some bike, or exhaust, manufacturers (who I think it would be most attractive to) with a suggestion without any real details until a re-numeration figure is confirmed.

[Tony.Brown]

happy to test one for you John! 

[mic]

Hmmm, thanks for the feedback, I will go ahead and make a few samples and see if it is practicable for me to start production.  Maybe dangle a carrot to some bike, or exhaust, manufacturers (who I think it would be most attractive to) with a suggestion without any real details until a re-numeration figure is confirmed.

you are not supposed to dangle anything close looking to what you have.... even to friends

[80-85 husky]

get a soli to draw up a sale of the item / invention principle with an up front fee of 10 / 20 / 50 k whatever is realistic and then a have a hook commission of 1 $for every unit sold or something and let someone else produce sell and market the bloody thing unless you are in a position to market. 1 interesting aspect youo should check out was the beehive I talked about. the guy put together a crowd fund to raise 4 mill and it went viral and they raised millions...then he had to start a production company and sell the units flat out but it all worked. it was a beehive that you can get the honey out without opening the hive. it was on Australian story I think.

you can start the fund raising without giving the game away too much and away you go...

[Mike52]

happy to test one for you John! 

Yep me too. 

Not as funny as it sounds because there's a bunch of Adventure Riders who would jump at a quiet/powerful muffler.
As you know the market has either loud/powerful or quiet/woeful mufflers.

[Lozza]

get a soli to draw up a sale of the item / invention principle with an up front fee of 10 / 20 / 50 k whatever is realistic and then a have a hook commission of 1 $for every unit sold or something and let someone else produce sell and market the bloody thing unless you are in a position to market. 1 interesting aspect youo should check out was the beehive I talked about. the guy put together a crowd fund to raise 4 mill and it went viral and they raised millions...then he had to start a production company and sell the units flat out but it all worked. it was a beehive that you can get the honey out without opening the hive. it was on Australian story I think.

you can start the fund raising without giving the game away too much and away you go...

Reminds me  of the Norman Hyde Hossack front end for bikes, Norman sold the plans to build a Hossack front end frame. A German fellow purchased the plans, he realised the idea had never been patented, he got some sort of protection then sold the idea to BMW who called it the "telelever" he god a couple of milion plus a royalty for 10yrs.
The beehive show is worth watching and that company would probably give you all the help you could ask for. There might even be goverment grant/assistance to step you through the process

http://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/get-the-right-ip/patents/apply-for-a-patent/