Hello Joe,
As we say at inventRight quite often, the only opinion that really matters is the opinion of the manufacturer/potential licensee. After all they are the one with 10, 20 or 30 years in the business and they are the ones that have seen everything come and go in the area of your invention. They are tapped into what consumers want and they are the ones who will be investing their money, advertising dollars, marketing effort, manufacturing and distributing the product.
The inventRight approach would be to spend very little time and money on the patent and prototype before calling the manufacturer so you can get feedback from someone in the industry of your invention. See what they think and make adjustments if you can to acomodate their criticisims or concerns.
If no one is interested in the idea or you can't fix what manufacturers didn't like about the invention. Then dump the idea and move onto the next. If your using the inventRight approach, you will most likely have just spent $105 on a provisional patent applicaiton and a few dollars on a sell sheet instead of a prototype, so you will have the time, energy and money to move onto the next idea.
Don't try to "make an idea work". Get the opinion from potential licensees and move on if no one is interested.
Keep Inventing,
Stephen Key & Andrew Krauss
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