Can you imagine how great it would be to know what one question you should ask before you get started on something you’ve never done before? The answer would tell you whether a person or company is legitimate so you can trust them with your idea.
In the inventing and new product development business that one question is: “Where can I go to BUY the new product ideas that you worked on for your clients?”
If their clients’ ideas are not in the stores, politely thank them and move on. Do not, I repeat, do not listen to any other answer.
This may not be a typical Davison blog topic, but I thought it was time to address it. We have more and more customers who lost outrageous amounts of money from all the bad advice they got from invention promotion companies, fast-talking patent attorneys and others, before they found us. It’s becoming increasingly frustrating.
People who are doing this for the first time need a complete solution from someone with experience in all areas of product development. We research, design, engineer, build the product sample and negotiate the license and patent with the corporation. On some of the packages in the stores you’ll even see my cursive “D” on the back.
If anyone says it can’t be done all under one roof, it’s because they want to sell you on whatever limited service they offer. These invention marketing companies do not design, engineer or build anything. They will just talk, talk, talk you into thinking that you will get royalties for an undeveloped idea or undeveloped patent. Wrong!
These invention marketers tell people all they need to do is dream up an idea or make a website of an idea and that some major corporation will pay them royalties for it. They pretend they made a prototype and call it a virtual prototype.
Even if invention companies have pretty literature, glorious testimonials, lots of paper patents or even a fake product package, tell them you want to go see some of their clients’ products on the store shelves; better yet, three or four client products in different stores. In reality, all they build is ink on paper or pixels on an electronic screen.
Go to the stores and find out who is for real, before you trust them with your idea or your hard-earned money. In my case, you can find my clients’ products in stores all across the country – or, to save gasoline, just visit Davison.com’s Product Section.