Reading the What’s your million-dollar idea? thread reminded me (painfully) of an idea that Mrs. Dvl and I had a short while ago. We did a plethora of research and specking out of the possibilities (costs, models, etc.) and found it had the possibility of returning serious duckets. Really serious duckets. But then our research turned up a problem…
A company, a Very Large Monolith of a company (we’re talking billions in assets) controls the market. They have agreements with venues—all venues of note, it’s that large of a company—that assigns the VLM company the right to be the exclusive distributor of the product category.
I hate to sound coy about the plan, but consider a close analogy: Food in baseball stadiums. VLM Co. has the right to be the exclusive food and beverage vendor in baseball stadiums—it has signed agreements with all of them: they’re the only ones who can distribute food in the stadiums. But right now they’re only selling hotdogs. Mrs. Dvl and I realized that lo, there’s a market for peanuts. We did a few months of research into consumer preferences, figured out the cost of buying/selling peanuts, etc., and realized there’s a hefty profit to be made… but we can’t approach the stadiums/team owners due to the agreement. The spirit of the OP is that we want to go to VLM Co. and sell them the idea (or even implement it ourselves under their banner) but don’t want to be merely thanked for the idea—if it gets implemented we want a share of the loot.
I don’t think this idea is patentable, so that route isn’t of help. And if I was the VLM company, I wouldn’t sign a non-disclosure agreement blindly in case I had the idea on the boards for the past few months. Yet without anything ahead of time, our interests are totally unprotected.
So, now what? Is there any way we can present the idea to the company yet retain some semblance of protection, i.e., if they implement it, we get something—even a token—cut?
Picturing this from the other side… I’m the president of VLM, and you come to me with the idea of selling peanuts, and you want me to pay you a cut? I can’t see how that makes any sense, unless instead of peanuts, your idea is a product which you own or control (say, Dippin’ Dots).
Is there some reason why peanuts wouldn’t have occurred to me?
It is possible to patent a “business model” idea. In other words, if you are the first person to have the idea of selling deviled eggs at baseball games, you (might) be able to patent that idea. Try talking to a patent or intellectual rights attorney.
You can’t sell the peanuts to the baseball fans, but you can sell to VLM. If you approach them with a plan to deliver peanuts in some agreed apon packaging for a good price, they may be willing to let you handle the production and distribution up to the stadium door, and let them take over after that. The problem is that VLM, already in the food distribution biz, could probably do it cheaper themselves if they wanted.
The idea itself I would say is worth nada.
Reminds me of an old episode of Cheers. Sam malone is talking to his billionare nemesis Robin Colcord his idea to buy this other bar/restuarant and turn it into a hot new establishment. Well, Robin goes off and buys it and Sam get all pissed saying that was his dream and all. Robin replies something like “to you it was this wonderful, unobtainable dream, for me all it took was two phone calls and a handshake”. And of course he then helps Sam realize his true dream is to buy back Cheers.
In reality, there are more great ideas than successful businesses implementing them. Coming up with the idea is only part of what get’s you rich. The Wright Brothers didn’t come up with the idea of the airplane after all.
Actually, if you want to be in the “ideas that can’t be personally implemented” business, become a consultant.
You want to get a cut of the profits but you aren’t risking anything. Everyone would like a sweet deal like that. The person taking the risk gets the profits. (If the idea turns out to be a money-loser are you also willing to be on the hook for a percentage of the losses?)
That’s why ideas by themselves are worth nothing. To implement the idea involves spending money, usually lots of it, with no guarantee it will work.
But I doubt you can get a patent for an idea like selling peanuts at the ballpark.
As I understand it, the OP isn’t actually a peanut provider (or whatever), just someone who thinks there is money to be made selling peanuts at ballparks. I realize the OP wants to keep the specifics secret, but I’m still puzzled as to why this idea wouldn’t have already occurred to either the hypothetical vendor or to the peanut suppliers.
I agree with this assessment. I work for Sony providing design support to game developers. Suppose you come to us with the greatest game idea in the world. If that’s all you got, we won’t even return your emails. On the other hand, if you approach us with a team of your own and a production plan we’ll invite you in and talk terms.
Ah, and hence the general question. Someone approaches VLM/Sony with a report/presentation that contains overall rational, cost and revenue models, supplier information, development and expansion strategy, etc. What’s to keep ** Pochacco’sEvilTwin** from smiling politely and declining the proposition, then implementing it himself? What’s to stop VLM/Sony from doing so?
And then, if technology patents and Slashdot are any guide, you wait for a company to actually come up with the same idea and put it into practice. You then patent-troll and sue the company for millions of dollars, hoping for a settlement.
Heck, considering the stuff the patent office allows these days, it probably doesn’t even have to be novel or non-obvious. Something like “I sell tuna sandwiches, but over the Internet.”
Is this real or a UL? Corp v. corp I can see, but Davey v. Goliath? Seems like all Goliath would have to do is have its legal department sit on it for a few years and the cost of maintaining a suit would be way beyond most people’s ability to fund.
The risk that it won’t work and will lose them lots of money. All the rest (revenue models etc.) aren’t really all that valuable to them. They can do that stuff themselves and probably would prefer to before risking money.
Well, not really with an individual. But we keep seeing it with small corporations vs big corporations or with companies who just file/buy patents and then sue. Here’s the latest example with smartphones.
Well in our case it would be bad for business in the long run. We deal with lots of developers and its important that they feel like they can trust us when they pitch to us. If we started stealing ideas word would get out and developers would avoid us. We could also potentially open ourselves to being sued for violating the copyright of the original creator depending on how directly we ripped them off.
In your case none of this may apply. I don’t believe you can copyright a business plan so there’s no protection there. And if the VLM doesn’t regularly deal with individuals like you they have no fear of ruining their reputation.
