Has anyone here ever patented anything?

[Cogito]

I feel like there are a lot of creative people here, so I was just curious, has anyone here patented anything?

[Grant Lamontagne]

I have thought about it, but there is a serious flaw in patents these days.  Back when your greatest competition was within the US there was merit to it, as companies were easy to track down and hold them responsible.

Nowadays it's much more likely that any decent product or patent you register is going to be copied by a company in a place like China or Pakistan, and these countries don't subscribe to patent law.  Basically, copying ideas is not illegal there, and there's really no way to enforce that here.  If you had the time and money you could theoretically get a ruling against Company X that was ripping you off, and the government could suspend importation of said widget, but I really doubt an individual would have that much time/money to try and enforce that.  I know Victorinox has tried, and how many SAK knockoffs do you see in stores?

To be honest, if I was to have a product that I wanted to patent, I probably wouldn't bother.  Patents are pretty much just for show nowadays, and I think I would rather put the time and money required for a patent into refining and improving the design to stay ahead of the potential copycats.

Def

[Cogito]

Have you made any of those ideas that you thought about patenting?  I'm just curious

[Grant Lamontagne]

Not yet- I suffer from a severe amount of scatterbrainitis which means I have too many projects and not much time.  This means I have a lot of things to do and never get any of it done. 

Sooner or later I may actually complete a project, and you can bet you will all hear about it here first! 

Def

[Cogito]

That would be awesome!  I look forward to that day

[Grant Lamontagne]

I wouldn't hold my breathe if I were you....

Def

[ironraven]

Patent search underway for something. Needless to say, I'm not going to go into too many details.Then comes building the prototype- it won't be cheap and there will be lots of paperwork involved, so I want the search out of the way first.

[Cogito]

Awesome Raven   Good luck and keep us updated

[tosh]

I don't know if I'm right or wrong on this, but to me I think get the brand name right and the item/idea/concept whatever the absolute best it can be, then 'yes' I think it could/would work regardless of a worldwide patent or not, so long as nobody came along stole your idea completely and then patented it themselves.

There are a lot of people out there with money to spend and with the web now here to stay you have a ready made shop front!! - most are not too fussed about how much it costs (within reason  ) but what they won't stand for is "mediocre" if you're gonna do it - then do it right!!

Look at Tim Leatherman, pretty damn sure he didn't go chasing the money in those early days he was probably too fired up with passion - and to me that's where the success lies. If you go chasing the money then I'm pretty certain it'll fail - but if you throw all your energy into making yours the Best!! Then I suspect money eventually becomes a byproduct of "it's" success.


Which brings me to slightly different topic 
I often think that first editions were/are usually the best ones, once the product brand name has established itself, I always get the feeling that manufacturers are constantly cost cutting to boost their profits......which always seems to eventually lead to their products being manufactured abroad