I posted this elsewhere. How would I go about this? I have an idea that I have not seen on lures. I don't want to mass mfg lures myself, but I bet companies would be interested in it. How would I proceed w/o showing my hand? I feel if I don't do somethig about this idea, and i try it on my lures, and it works, someone may see it and run. Who should I contact? If I had it copyrighted, others could tweek it and call it their own. Once copyrighted, can that be put up for sale? What would YOU do??? Thanks.
If it's truly unique, patent it.
There's not much out there that hasn't been tried. Spring loaded hooks, built in gills, different diving lips, cups, wings, blades, double jointed, triple jointed, etc. In the lure industry it's really all about keeping it quiet until you can get enough guys to catch big fish on it and then make enough to meet demand. Selling lures is all about the three M's – Marketing, Marketing, Marketing.
Oh, and getting Al Linder to endorse it wouldn't be bad…
Rodney, a local lure manufacturer here in Flint has been selling manufactured baits to us for several years. However this year he lost his idea. He showed his lures to some people from one of the big bait companies and they stole it from him exactly and are making millions on it now. Rodney didn't get the patent and all he has to show for his efforts is nothing. True story, the bait is a Blade Dancer.
You better be sure this idea will sell before you spend $6000.00 on getting a patent.I checked into this before,and decided it was too much money for me,especially for low volumn muskie market.I was told by Jake Satonica of Grandma that patents were a waste of money,because someone just needs to make a 10% change or modification to get around it.And his lures have been copied numerous times!Not to mention you still have to sue the person to inforce a patent,wich means more money.Like Will said,(marketing) get the name out there and build name recognition to the product.This year there will be lots of companies making Weagle knock offs,but people will still buy Weagles,because they are Weagles.Now if this is something that crosses over to the bass or walleye market, then you may want to do a patent search.
Tom
Tried Al Lindner this morning, they said he was out fishing somewhere. They wouldn't cough up his cell phone number either, not even for a great idea. 😀 Right now it is this idea in my head. Didn't get much sleep Wed. night because of it, and this am the bloody parrots woke me up. ( One parrot for sale. Grey, green, orange, yellow, noisy, make a great surface bait. Cheaper than those poodles in Northern Wisconsin.) I don't think I could sell an idea. Gotta test it. I can think of 2 or 3 tweeks i could do already. Looked thru Rollie's this am and saw it on none. I'm sure it could work on smaller size baits too. I'll keep you posted….
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