So in the past couple years or so, I have been putting some work into an invention of mine. The product I’m printing would be something completely different than what’s officially patented and out there so I’m not necessarily concerned about infringing on something else, I’m curious as to how printing a prototype can further a patent application. Having a 3D printer is such a luxury when it comes to research and development of an idea, but I intend on taking this to the next step. My question is how can my finalized prototype aide me in obtaining a patent or how can I use to prototype to establish ownership of the idea/establish a day 1 for the product. Any tips or suggestions would be appreciated, thanks!
I think the real role of the 3d printing is in the process of iterating in design due to a final design to include in the patent.
Also can be a nice oportunity to have some version or variants of your design, so you can patent or register later.
I dont know the Patent office works on your country, but most receive schematics and “blueprints”, as i saw researching for electronics and phisical objects.
So, the real value of the 3d printing here is iteration over design, and of course, a phisical objecto to atrack investors or pass to the fabrication part.
I worked as hub last year, and receive a model to print from a Design company. They where designing packages for a company. They iterate with the client 3 times with the printed model, so after that, they send the final 3d printed model to a chinese company to fabricate.
You can register an idea before the patent submission which gives you protection. That’s why you see often patent pending on the product. I assume you have a working prototype? The best is to patent the product in the US, Germany and France. But you will get infringements. A friend of mine invented the butterup knife, when on kickstarter and collected USD360k. His product was a huge success but as soon he sold the knives after his launch, fake ones where offered on amazon daily. There is a lot of effort required by him to get those listings removed. It all works but lot’s of effort. Better is to team up with a large company specialised in the that product type or application. You supply them with an initial batch of 100 and if they like it the produce it in licence and you get paid a percentage which could be just 10% which seems very lowbut wait… 10% of 1 million orders is more than 1000 units sold yearly by yourself. That last option to do everything yourselves is attractive and you learn lots but it does not pay the bills for one or two years. I ran my kickstarter in August last year and sold 250 controllers for laser unit from China. I just ordered another batch of 250. I have no patent because it’s too expensive for that niche market. So i just sell them untill they get copied by china. This gives me they option to learn and gather some funds for more lucrative ideas like selling my own designed laser cutter engraver unit based on my developed controller. So do the sums in terms of selling items and ROI and that gives you an indication. A patent is just to stall the big companies in the developed world. China, Taiwan etc will copy it regardless but you have a chance to establish a brand before the others do like dyson etc. people buy from them because it’s guaranteed to work. Hope this helps!
US patents are now based on first to file not first to invent. If you print a prototype and don’t file a provisional patent and someone comes along 6 six months from now and files a patent and you have not done yours, they are first and you may be out of luck.
