OK so assume an idea that is not patentable.
Suppose I had an idea for a company that would make them money. Not a “make a homesized fusion reactor” but one they could implement tomorrow. For example - make a mini-sized and super-sized Big Mac*. Assume they actually listen to my idea, then how can I protect my idea so they can’t steal it?
*Not my idea, just an example.
Not really a whole lot you could do at that point.
When i worked for a restaurant, i came up with all sorts of ideas on how to attract customers, or cut some costs. 9 times out of 10, the owner would hear them, kind of scoff at them and that was that. Then 6 months later he would have a brilliant idea!
As far as i know, offering an idea, with really no reason to keep the idea guy in the loop, such as, you don’t have a connection they need. You just kind of have the decide whether you are willing to let the idea go out of the kindness of your heart.
For the most part, ideas are basically worthless, especially with big companies. Those companies already have ideas. They don’t need ideas. They need market research that proves that this particular idea will sell. They need prototypes. They need the product to be fully developed. They need to advertise the product. They need to stock the product. And so on. The company is going to invest all of the money and take all of the risk. Why should they give you anything?
If you are just Joe Shmoe off the street with an idea, you basically have nothing. You have no reputation. You have no market research that proves the product will sell. You don’t even have a fully developed product.
Now if you’re not Joe Shmoe, and instead are someone with a proven track record of turning ideas into big profits, then the company might be interested in talking to you.
There are of course some exceptions to this. A whiz-bang idea could easily be made into the next super-popular phone app, for example. In the music industry, an idea for a song might be the next big hit that makes millions.
But for the most part, ideas are worthless.
Someone who sells ideas is a consultant. Consultant’s seldom work on spec - they are hired by companies to provide them with intellectual services, because they have a track record of providing those services.
The only way an “idea” would work is as a foot in the door. “Hi, you really should hire my consultancy to improve your menu offerings. As proof that we can boost your sales, here’s just one of our ideas - mini-Macs and super-Macs. What do you think? Great, right? There’s more where that came from.”
It’s not unheard of for companies to ask for free consultancy as part of a recruitment. “You want an advertising job here? Ok, how would you market our worst selling product?”
If sincere, that’s another way to sell an idea to a company, but you’re turning the idea into a paid job.
A lot of companies even have a policy explicitly saying they don’t want, ask for, or consider any product ideas from the public.
There have been times when someone sued a company after they made a product that matched an ‘idea’ they emailed them. The companies either already had people working on the ideas for years, or sometimes the ideas were so obvious they were apparent to anyone, but those cases still make it to court.
A Patent is a government run system of protecting intellectual property.
You can have them sign a non-disclosure agreement acknowledging and protecting your intellectual property.
I guess if your advice is to tell an electricity company to sell electricity, or something else EITHER obvious so as to be trivial OR not clearly original, you are going to have the problem of originality just as with patents.
If you’re worried about telling an idea, I guess you could draw up an NDA? Then you could bounce your idea off some people / companies and get feedback.
But I can’t imagine a scenario in which they’ll pay you just for a high level idea.
If you’re worried about telling an idea, I guess you could draw up an NDA? Then you could bounce your idea off some people / companies and get feedback.
But I can’t imagine a scenario in which they’ll pay you just for a high level idea.
I am extremely :dubious: about the claims made in this book, but the author says he has made a career out of doing just what you have in mind. So, FWIW.
If you actually read the book, and succeed, please post your experience in the spirit of overcoming ignorance and all that!
Yes you could draw up an NDA, but unless you already had some very solid reputation in the particular industry, 99% of companies would refuse to sign it and just say they’re not interested.
If you have an amazing idea, then your best bet of capitalising on it (other than a patent) is to create a start-up based on that idea. There’s so many incubators, and start up networking events in most major cities that if your idea has wheels (and you put a ton of your own work and some of your own money into it), it will almost certainly get funding.
This.
Companies don’t want to hear about your ideas.
As stated by ECG, ideas are a dime-a-dozen. Not only that, but let’s say that (by coincidence) the company is already working on your idea. They’re afraid you’re going to sue them when their idea hits the market.
As someone who’s worked in marketing at senior levels for several “Tier 1” companies - I can confirm that no major company will even talk to you without a patent for exactly the reasons the other posters mention: they are afraid of liability for “stealing your idea.”
In one company I was at many years ago, we did look at people’s ideas, then a person sent in an idea that we were already 2+ years down the path of implementing (starting market trials). The crap hit the fan internally and we immediately stopped looking at all “ideas” that came in. We ended up having our lawyers contact the guy to provide documentation that we’d been working on his idea already. In the end we gave him some free products and thanked him for his time, so he was happy and felt validated that he was clever (which he was).
After that all outside emails and snail mail were screened by our “consumer relations” department (my secretary) and returned without reading as soon as there was any mention of “new product ideas”. We told people if they could provide us with proof of patent, we’d gladly have a look and discuss feasibility and possible partnership.
To answer the OP question: if it’s something like the example of a new size or flavour to an existing product don’t waste your time. Companies are considering hundreds of those ideas constantly. If it’s something like a “patentable” tweek to an existing product it may be worth pursuing, even as solo operator. (If you change the nozzle on your fuel injectors to my design it will double milage…)
Consult a patent lawyer. It may cost you money, but if you believe in your idea it may be worth it.
Fascinating topic and not as simple and cut and dry as it might appear on the surface. The world is ripe for social media collaborations. The language and protocol that would be needed to maintain motivation and attract the almost limitless intellectual resources and skills available to all of us on the internet needs to be developed.
Unlike big industry that is driven by cash a virtual think tank on social media would be driven by our own neuro chemical reward system. Acceptance, validation, creativity, and accomplishments are all powerful neuro drives that hold their won rewards.
People who have concepts ( Contributors) people who recognize good concepts ( advocates) Those who can sell the concept to others ( writers) Those who know how to develop the project and where to take it ( developers) and those who will actually go to work on the various aspects.
The entire concept of open free source collaborations has been gaining attention in recent years but a lot of the challenges are yet to have been overcome.
I am currently working on a novel/ screenplay on this topic. ( The Collaboration) in recent weeks I have received a little attention from some important people expressing interest. I am feeling encouraged. I have been working on this for several years now.To point out how true this is, the two ideas listed in the OP as examples are already implemented by Mcdonalds - they have a quarter-pounder sized Big Mac in some countries, and are rolling out a mini Big Mac later this year.
Just to add another point, I used to work the customer service line for a major corporation. If you call with an idea, we immediately tell you we can’t take any ideas for liability reasons. The call just gets saved as “Customer had a new idea,” with no more information.
Companies will approach you if they are interested in one of your patents or registered trademarks. Otherwise they don’t want to hear from you in an official capacity. They may let you email ideas to them on their general corporate feedback site, but I’m certain that any idea submitted there has some small print disclaimer stating that they owe you nothing for it.
My cousin has several patents for a toothbrush with floss in the handle and has trademarked a couple of names. He has been approached by companies wishing to purchase his trademark for a nominal fee but that’s it, they are not interested in his patent. Most likely because they are quite adept at getting around amateur level patents. Since then he has had his website hijacked and has no exposure in the market. It’s my opinion that someone wants to show that he isn’t defending his trademark so they can just take it.
I have no clue how I missed that. What a coincidence that I used those as examples.
Ideas are worthless. But work out the idea in detail with all the costs, marketing and legal issues addressed and you might get hired by a company that’s interested. Or not. It’s rare that you could get a business to even look if you took the steps to protect your intellectual property. Also look up the start of the feud between Tesla and Edison, not to mentions Steve Jobs and Atari. Even a promise to pay for an idea isn’t worth much.
I wouldn’t say ideas are worthless IMO, but they are the smallest part of the cost to bring a product to market.
In most big companies there is a long process: the product managers jobs were to review customer feedback (complaints), competitors, other countries (we’d have global trend meetings annually), and they’d surf (message board forums etc), we had engineers & professors as advisors etc. and generate possible new products.
Each year we’d have an “ideation” session and we’d throw all the ideas on wall charts and rank them based on “gut feel” for potential popularity, cost profit & manufacturing feasibility etc. We’d usually start with 200+ ideas for my $300 Million dollar division. and in that meeting we’d distill those down to about 10 we could comfortably manage to move to next steps (consumer research to launch), typically 8 of those would drop out for various reasons before launch. The most common reason was too expensive to make and we didn’t think consumers would pay enough to make a reasonable profit and we couldn’t figure out a way to make it cheaper.
If the idea was a variation to an existing product, we could usually launch in a year or so. Totally new products (new manufacturing etc) was +2 years and millions of dollars invested.