my project has been tested. now I am working on make it producible tripod gimbaled assembly that for securing large heavy (>10 lbs) telephotos lenses . The range of motion is 70 degrees vertically and 360 degrees horizontally. The assembly is inexpensive and easy to build.
Any suggestions about securing possible intellectual rights
Sounds like what you need is a patent. I am not a lawyer and I do not play one on television.
A trademark gives you no protection against someone copying your gizmo and selling it under a different name. If it is inexpensive and easy to build, trade secret protection will not work. Your biggest problem will be people making the unit for their own use.
do you know how to get funding?
is there investment that could fund a business opportunities?
Here is one example of such an organization.
http://www.northtexasangels.org/
At least one member @ DMS is involved with it, so thatās where I remember the name.
I only know this one, and others exist.
Iāve never gotten anything funded, nor even tried, but my point is, there are investment firms out there you can āshark tankā your idea to and see if they want to fund you.
As for protecting intellectual property, if I recall my notes correctly:
- keep it to yourself (anyone you discuss it with should have an NDA)
- check with google patent search, and other research methods that cost you nothing to try to make sure your idea is unique (USPTO https://www.uspto.gov/patents-application-process/search-patents)
- contact a patent attorney and get the ball rolling, if patent is right for your goalsā¦
- develop your product
- market or sell license on your product
(Iām sure Iām missing some stuff hereā¦)
Hereās an article with some basics (like, the 4 major facets of āprotectableā intellectual property: trademark, copyright, patent, trade secret).
Good luck. Sounds nifty!
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As Andrew said, you can look for an angel in the form of a venture capitalist.
The modern alternative is crowdfunding; Kickstarter is the best known. Again, your problem is āinexpensive and easy to build.ā Once you publish the details of your idea for your campaign, cloners with deeper pockets can beat you to market.
One other avenue is to try to get existing photographic equipment manufacturers interested in a deal, but you will want the patent first.
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Thank you very much for your time and advice.
I have another idea, it is harder to build but the niche market is small.
Iām pretty certain you canāt get a utility patent on this since it already exists
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I have been watching a startup called GnarBox for a few years waiting for their product to come out so I could buy it. They had a great idea that would work perfect for my photography trips to easily store images from my cards without booting a PC. Today I received an email that they are live selling and you can buy on Amazon. Problem is, Western Digital already came out with a similar product at 60% of the price. Seems very difficult to get a product to market if you canāt protect it.
As far as the large camera mount goes I buy my mounts from a company Really Right Stuff who seems to have done a good job at tending to a niche market. At this point most brick and mortar stores just send you to their website if you need a specialized mount and donāt bother stocking anymore. They may be a source for at least what the competition may be as well as a good model for capturing a niche market.
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I would go through the B&H Photo catalog and look for anything with similar features. They donāt have to all be on the same item, but anything similar, look up the patent on it to see what it covers.