Inventors

[fastfarmall]

More smoke ever see a Uni work, they are so gutless it's amazing they got anything done, under powered was their big mistake!!!!

 

[sms]

Funny thing is that I was working across the road from a friend of mine that lived on income from his inventions.

 

[NY 986]

Don't matter. Laser guided construction equipment was already a reality before the poster's timeline. I remember back around 1980 there were a few contractors in my community and the talk was when is so and so getting a laser for his trencher or tile plow?

 

[moresmoke]

A college degree is a sign of persistence not intelligence. Impressive of GM and Ford to reward employees for their suggestions. Most of the places I have worked they would just be scoffed at. Engineers, at least these days, tend to be an arrogant bunch.

Yes, I have that piece of paper too.

 

[Geo-TH,In]

Isn't the laser old school.
Are they using satellite technology to level with?
My point remains, what prevents China from stealing your invention?
Some think China hacked the honda generator and made a champion generator.

 

[Crazy Horse]

A great topic and as usual a wide variety of expertise on applying for and hopefully receiving a patent on an idea that popped into your mind at one time or another. TomNE's reply is the one that made the most sense to me. So I did a bit of web surfing and if you have an hour or two and then a few more to go through it all again so you understand how it works, give the info in the link below a read. All I can add is .... GOOD LUCK .....
Patents 101 plus MORE .....

 

[Crem]

I have a patent agent friend that has sold 10 patents of his own. And he's written over 400 patents for others. He can be reached at bobharter.com.
Patents

 

[teddy52food]

Joe Newman couldn't get a patent on his invention. WHY?????????????????

 

[Ozlander]

(quoted from post at 14:42:57 04/06/23) Back in the early sixties, I thought of making a phone that you could carry in your pocket. This phone would take pictures and share them with others, deposit my checks to the bank, sent messages to others, give the weather forecast, give directions for traveling, etc. I wonder if anyone picked upon that!

I have a calculator that all that stuff and more.

 

[tall german]

I know a guy that created a roping dummy for team roping in rodeo. He did all the work, created the concept, and then went through the patent process. It took about a year. Then, they started manufacturing and selling them. They have been making them for over 10 years and have sold them all over the us and some foreign markets. At least 2 or 3 times, other companies have tried to make the same machine and all it took was one call from my friends lawyer to cease and desist for violation of patent and they stopped. One key is to never show your concept to anyone until you have a legal patent. A big corporation can make the same machine as yours up to about 90% and tweak it just enough so its not exactly alike.

 

[NY 986]

sms was talking about 40 years ago or more (1983). Lasers were not old technology then and GPS did not exist in 1983. Yeah, in the last 15 years or so GPS is where it is at but not in 1983. Further, China in 1983 was not in US borders stealing technology although if they could have they would have. I had a gentleman from China living in my student residence at Cornell during 1985. I'm sure his government would have loved for him to have spied on the US but he certainly did not have unrestricted access to things in those days. Probably why he disappeared ahead of his government looking for him in 1986. Apparently, the Feds were investigating his disappearance in 1986 but I was at class when they stopped by the student residence asking questions. Sure, if you as a country or a company go around with your shields down a country such as China will try to exploit that. But then again we are only talking about lasers and 1983. I just wanted sms to feel like he did not miss the boat on lasers no more than what I did when I drew a rotary combine assembly. Somebody already beat us to it. So, neither of us threw away a winning lottery ticket so to speak.

 

[DoubleO7]

(reply to post at 18:37:17 04/06/23)

"there's nothing criminal about infringing on someone else's patent so if a company sees what you're doing and brings an identical product to market it is completely up to you to defend yourself, the costs of which could be deep into the six-figures. Most people wouldn't have the wherewithal to put up much of a fight at which point the patent is essentially worthless. "

Exactly my point, anyone with deeper pockets can and will bury you.

 

[rlp in Co.]

It's good to hear that the pattent law
work sometimes!

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

(quoted from post at 15:31:30 04/07/23) It's good to hear that the pattent law
work sometimes!

It works if you have something that's not attractive to a big corporation. There's never going to be a demand for millions of roping dummies for example. That's a product that'll keep a family fed, but not something you can produce millions of and sell at Walmart.

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

(quoted from post at 13:23:41 04/06/23) That's discouraging! I wonder if Honda
gets any money from all the millions of
Honda clone engines that China builds
every year!

Patents aren't forever. You get 10 years initially, and I think you can extend it once if you can make a good enough case. The Honda OHV engine design has been out for over 20 years now, so any patent they may have held, is long gone.

 

[Den N Ms]

I have has patents on several things I have invented,then a short time later seen my invention on the market for sale.Come to find out cooperation's have people (spies) who are at the patent office that look for ideas in new filed patents and that is their job.They look at ideas that come in that they think can be marketed have one little thing changed and BOOM it is in the stores for sale.
Patents are a joke.Manufacture it with patent pending and get it out on the market.Patents are the bread and butter for money hunger lawyers.

 

[rlp in Co.]

Thanks!

 

[tall german]

We were at a 50th anniversary a couple of years ago and I talked to the couples son who is a career mechanical engineer at John Deere. It came up in our chat about patents for all their new equipment. He said that JD had a whole legal team that does nothing but patent work. They patent every piece of every machine they make. No wonder the patent process is so slow. In the day, Thomas Edison patented over 1200 items made in his shop alone. The process must have been much quicker and easier.

One time, I came up with the idea for a "flushable cat toilet". Basically, it was a bottomless box covered with 1/2" hardware cloth. It slid into another box with a bottom. You put the cat litter in the inside box. The cats did their job. When the litter needed to be changed, instead of throwing the old litter away, you lift the inside box up and shake it, straining out the big chunks. You take them out and put them on the garden shake the litter around and reassemble the system back again. It worked well. You could reuse the litter again a couple of times before you started over.
Popular Science had a article called Wordless Workshop where you could send ideas in to their column which I did. It was only a couple of months until Rubbermaid came out with the same concept and most likely, made a pile of money. Oh, Well!!