How to keep an idea 'protected'

Joined
13 Jun 2021
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Wolverhampton, West Midlands
Good Morning folks

I have come up with an idea which may help individuals who have some kind of disability to use general house hold DIY tools (screw driver, hammer, nails, chisels, drills etc) more easily.

However, I would need to do a lot of research and expand my knowledge on those particular tool(s) before trying to come up with a prototype

How do I find out if that idea is already on the market? Would I just 'google' it?

How do I know it will be in demand?


Thanks in advance for your responses
 
Soldato
Joined
5 Mar 2010
Posts
12,305
Good Morning folks

I have come up with an idea which may help individuals who have some kind of disability to use general house hold DIY tools (screw driver, hammer, nails, chisels, drills etc) more easily.

However, I would need to do a lot of research and expand my knowledge on those particular tool(s) before trying to come up with a prototype

How do I find out if that idea is already on the market? Would I just 'google' it?

How do I know it will be in demand?


Thanks in advance for your responses

As above, you need to do a LOT of research to determine if it's something worthwhile pursuing.

If you haven't come across it already, have a watch of a few episodes of Dragons Den. They're significantly further ahead than you are, but it also gives you an idea of what happens next after you've hopefully secured a patent for your invention and have some prototypes (Spoiler - some people go on the show without a patent to their idea/invention and get ripped to shreds as it's no longer a viable business prospect).
 

mrk

mrk

Man of Honour
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18 Oct 2002
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South Coast
Looked into similar some years ago as had a couple of ideas that were things I've never seen before but then a dig around the web revealed that in China these things already existed just not made their way to the West yet and in later years through the growth of AliExpress etc, eventually ended up here too.

So as above make sure it's worth the time and costs involved because it's quite possible that it exists somewhere out there.
 
Soldato
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City of London
Looked into similar some years ago as had a couple of ideas that were things I've never seen before but then a dig around the web revealed that in China these things already existed just not made their way to the West yet and in later years through the growth of AliExpress etc, eventually ended up here too.
I told you at the time that the fleshlight already existed!
 
Man of Honour
Joined
17 Nov 2003
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Location
Southampton, UK
Good Morning folks

I have come up with an idea which may help individuals who have some kind of disability to use general house hold DIY tools (screw driver, hammer, nails, chisels, drills etc) more easily.

However, I would need to do a lot of research and expand my knowledge on those particular tool(s) before trying to come up with a prototype

It's worth making something clear: ideas, in themselves, aren't all that valuable. There's a common myth that having a great idea is worth £££, but in reality, there is a long and often winding journey for any idea to be worth anything. How an idea is made into a design or prototype, how it's refined, how it's financed and ultimately how it's marketed is more important than the idea itself. If you have good finance, marketing and a design that is good enough, even a pretty crap idea can do well and sell.

How do I know it will be in demand?

You don't and a great idea can be scuppered by a bad design or implementation.
 
Man of Honour
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Stoke on Trent
Just on a side note back between 2008 to 2010 I used to run classes with mainly years 10 & 11 at the NHS involving Occupational Therapy.
They always used to say that inventing something for the disabled could earn a fortune and demonstrated examples.
One was a device for holding toilet paper so you could clean your under carriage which was amusing when 30 kids had just been handling one trying to work out what it was.
 
Soldato
Joined
11 Sep 2009
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13,911
Location
France, Alsace

I had a couple. They cost a lot. Like, a lot for the most part 10-15k per patent. And what are they really worth? Nothing really. Not as a small person, it really doesn't do much if people are inclined. Just build what you want.
 
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