I have a couple of different products that I would like to begin development on. My questions are as follows:

-Should I contact a company and pay a fee for an initial product evaluation? If so, any recommendations for a reputable one?

-Once the evaluation is completed, I should do an initial patent search? Again, any recommendations for this?

-Assuming the patent search comes up with nothing found similar to my product, should I then look at product development? I am somewhat lost at this stage of the game since there are so many companies that offer virtual product development, prototypes, etc...

I am looking to have these products licensed by a manufacturer but have no clue how to go about this without being ripped off.

Thank you in advance for your help.

Volunteerguy,

Phew, you raise many good questions, ones usually missed by inventors starting out.

The best thing to do is take one step at a time. We wrote a series of articles called 5 minute inventing that walks inventors through the various stages of inventing. We also have a 5-Stages to Inventing Guide to help you along the way.

Keep in mind one of the main reasons inventions don't make it is because inventor fails to evaluate the marketability of the product. See our article on Market Research.

Here is a _link_ to a non-profit that has a good reputation for product evaluations:Wisconsin Innovation Center.
Don't trust anyone you see on TV as they will all tell you that your product will sell millions. For a reputable firm, only 10-15% of products are typically recommended to go forward.

If they recommend you go forward, then you can find resources through our business directory.

Take a look at those articles at our Education section, that should give you some guidance.

Also, if you have questions in the future, I recommend you split up your questions to the different forums since each forum has a specialty. So for patent questions, ask your question in the patent forum, market research in the due diligence forum, etc. That will help you get some better answers as well.

Anyone else have any input?

Hi Volunteer guy
My advice is to do as much as possible by yourself using all the free advice available to you including this forum and any inventor organizations in your area. Deal only with entities that are recommended by a third party. Do your own initial patent searches and competative products search. Do your own evaluation _base_d on what is already out there in stores. Is your product better? How?
If it is a part made from plastic, the development is by 3 D modeling in the computer. That gets you 3D images and exact models through stereo lithography and some other techniques.
You can develop a catalog sheet from the images for market research. Before you go public, write a provisional patent and file it. It gives you a year of patent pending.
There are tooling costs and parts costs that can be calculated before sourcing.
I give talks to inventor groups around the country and the most common complaint is: I have this patent, what do I do now? You research, develop, evaluate, then patent it.

Doing a thorough patent search is the first step any inventor should take as Lisa mentions so you can avoid spending any further money on a product that may belong to someone else. If you are free and clear, then you must do consumer surveys to make sure that there would be potential interest in people buying your product should it be developed. In order to do a proper consumer survey (usually done on-line to reach a vast audience quickly, you do need some decent sketches or advanced drawings/renditions if you have them. A picture is worth a thousand words and without the drawings you will not get the best possible results from potential consumers.

The next step is to have a design/engineer firm review the product to ensure it can actually be manufactured cost effectively and at all the way you envision it being made.

After this, you then need to actually develop the product with design/engineering firm and in conjuction with a factory that will ultimately produce the product. Then, after you create packaging, wholesale and suggested retail pricing, and other details, you can then think about the sales and marketing of the product..

Thanks....Jim

I agree with my fellow posters, do your research first for free. You can use www.google.com/patents for a fast search. There is a lot on this site for ways to do a search.

Searching the market and making a model of your invention are all a good idea before you spend any money. You may find a better way to solve the problem you are addressing after searching patents and the market place.

When you finally have it all figured out, getting good feedback from other professionals, under non-disclosure, would also be a very good idea.

Then we can talk about spending money

Happy Inventing,
Lisa Lloyd