Lawfag needed

You have to patent your product Wich means you own the rights on your invention then you shop your product around kind of like "shark tank " TV show jerk

>>18371401
first thing, is get an nda made up and anyone you show the technical details must sign it.

if they break it, you have serious grounds to sue.

Second, go to uspto.gov and do a search on what you want to patent. its not always worth it.

>>18371410
patent and NDAs

the finer point on this is you need to file for the patent. DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES subject yourself or your business to the financial burdens of going through the full patent process. file your absolute minimums. do not neglect to set up your necessary business licenses and permits depending on what your state and locale requires. You need to decide on what business vehicle you want to form, you need to look at all the tax consequences each one has and decide a financial plan for the next five years. you need to write up a business plan, you need to write up articles of organization and decide what will happen in the event of a whole lot of shit essentially make laws for your business and the officers of your business to operate under. oh and don't forget to get an IRS number for your business. you also need a business only bank account and credit line.

oh and you need to decide if you want the patent under your name, or the business name cause that has huge consequences down the line. you can always transfer it later but my suggestion would be put it in the business name. SEPARATION OF PERSONAL AND BUSINESS AT ALL TIMES.

once all that is done. you need to get funding while also hunting down suppliers, distributors, and clients and you need to time all those things so that you have the relevant info for the people trying to fund you when they want it. you will likely also look to small business government loans so start looking up their regulations, requirements, and get all of your paperwork in order. you will be on the phone every other day, you will be sending them the same stuff at least five times, you will be talking to your bank, their liaison with SBA and you might also talk to someone at SBA itself though they will not be able to do anything for you cause government employee.

>>18371469
once all that is done and you've spent about a month getting 4 hours of sleep a night, you will get about a week before you are dealing with being on top of supplier and distributor problems.

also, you say you checked. just cause its not on the market doesn't mean that its not patented.
>>18371435
>>18371435
>>18371435
>>18371435
you can also hire firms to do all the patent law for you and ensure that yours will not infringe on any others.

you're welcome. a lawyer would charge you a few hundred for this info and to give you all the forms before he kicks you out of his office.

this shit gets my heart pumping.

>>18371469
>>18371476
do not forget your local and state tax filings or to set that up. you will get nailed hard later if you do. do not forget to take that into account for your financial plan.

since you're a student. I'd look for a business partner to manage things. you're gonna need a CFO that can be full time. it's either that or you establish that it's a viable idea and then drop out and go full time. I don't suggest this, regardless of a good idea 8/10 businesses fail in the first 12-18 months. I was doing excellent until I ran into a beast of a client. you never know what's going to happen regardless of how much you think your idea and plan can't fail.

>>18371506
What he said sounds very detailed

it's called a patent and a patent lawyer is who you'd talk to about getting one

>>18371700
NDAs are almost a better and more efficient way of doing it. patents are expensive af which is why OP you only do the barest minimum filing and work you can do on patents until you have good positive cash flow. no one goes into business with a patent already set up except for people with more money than brains.

Let's clear up the first misconception here. A patent does NOT give you rights to your invention, it only prevents others from using it. Multiple patents from multiple individuals can actually prevent an item from being sold/used because each patent blocks a necessary aspect of the design.

>>18371714
>NDAs are almost a better and more efficient way of doing it.
HAHAHAHAH
NDA's are almost worthless and it's very difficult to prove if someone broke them. If you have enough money to hire a lawyer and sue then you have enough money to hire a patent lawyer and do this properly.

>patents are expensive af
Yep and defending one could be astronomical.

> you only do the barest minimum filing
Bullshit. Your patent needs to be robust as hell if you ever want it to stand in court. Good patent lawyers find holes in other patents and then essentially steal your ideas without violating the patent (I was part of a company that does this).

>>18371469
What's your background/source? You sure don't provide information like someone familiar with patents. You don't even mention provisional patents or prior art.

>DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES subject yourself or your business to the financial burdens of going through the full patent process.
Smells like bullshit to me. Why would you recommend this? If you don't have a strong patent companies can just take your idea. Look at Sears.

>oh and you need to decide if you want the patent under your name, or the business name cause that has huge consequences down the line. you can always transfer it later but my suggestion would be put it in the business name.
patent must be under the name of the individual. A business name is optional but an actual person MUST be named.

Source: I'm an engineer with a few patents under my name and I've had many talks with the IP lawyers for a large company.

>>18371401
>engineer student
What year? What type of engineer?

>that could make me potentially lots of money. Big numbers.
>The only thing is I would need help building it
I'm guessing you're a 1st or 2nd year at this statement. Good business makes money, not a good invention.
You will never become a millionaire as a pure engineer/inventor. You'll need to pick up serious business skills and smart people to surround yourself with.

> I have checked and nothing else exists like it.
Checked where? Done patent searches? Prior art searches?

OP, you'll want to patent this but that takes serious time and money. You're looking at a minimum 2 years before you hear back from the patent office and that's if your paperwork is perfect. You'll need a patent lawyer to look over your filing and submit it at minimum. I'd suggest working with one for a larger part of the process but that takes serious money. Patents allow you to sue somebody for stealing your idea. If a large corporation decides to steal and sell your product then your patent will need to be strong enough to stand up to their lawyers and you'll need to be able to hire lawyers capable of defending it.

You sound inexperienced and probably lack the design ability and technical terminology to fully describe it. File this away, wait until you graduate, and then try to patent it later. You have a lot to learn.

>>18371435
You have to be careful with patent searches. If you do a shoddy search and end up infringing on a patent, you are liable for treble damages.

In addition to NDAs being unenforceable, as a student with no experience good luck getting anyone to listen to you to begin with.

>>18371789
>difficult to prove if someone broke them
if you talk to a manufacturing company about your product, decide their price for manufacturing is too high and don't go with them, and then they come out with your product, whoever you talked to had to violate the NDA to talk to their employees to produce it.

>provisional patent
there's what I'm talking about but couldn't remember the name of.

>Smells like bullshit to me. Why would you recommend this? If you don't have a strong patent companies can just take your idea. Look at Sears.
because a full patent can cost thousands and thousands of dollars. a provisional works just fine for start up and means you have less investment in an unproven idea. OP is a college student.

>File this away, wait until you graduate, and then try to patent it later. You have a lot to learn.
I disagree. you can do it now OP but it's going to be a lot of work and you need to realize that. as an engineering student you will not be able to do this yourself.

if you legit have a great idea, and you wait, someone else could come out with it. if you do it though, a provisional patent is only good for a year and then you have to apply for the full patent and go through the money and processes for that. you sit on it, and your obvious but great idea could be stolen, you go for it, you have one year to get it off the ground and prove the idea before you are confronted with the decision on whether or not its a product that works or not and if you want to go through with the patent process.