ianhornby Posted October 6, 2011 Share Posted October 6, 2011 Good day. I am involved in various aspects of community theatre - I used to be an electronics design engineer but am now a playwright. I have an innovative idea for a small system for theatre communication that I no longer have the brain to develop myself and am looking for someone with electronics experience to help with its design and development. I can fully specify what's needed and can organise a trial installation. If successful, I envisage being able to sell the devices to theatres worldwide, and - thanks to some organisations I run of am involved with (The Playwrights' Co-operative, New Theatre Publications, ScriptSwap, etc.) - I have a significant network of contacts in the theatre world I can market too. This would mean that a successful developer could sit back and earn a percentage of all sales. If anyone has the expertise and is interested, please contact me on ian AT scripts4theatre DOT com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ramdram Posted October 6, 2011 Share Posted October 6, 2011 Ian, BEFORE you involve the world and his wife, suggest you get some advice on patents and all that sort of thing. Apols if you know this already but if YOU have a good idea keep YOUR idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianhornby Posted October 6, 2011 Author Share Posted October 6, 2011 Ian, BEFORE you involve the world and his wife, suggest you get some advice on patents and all that sort of thing. Apols if you know this already but if YOU have a good idea keep YOUR idea. Thanks - I also need to check I'm not infringing patents! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timsabre Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 IMHO it's pointless for the small business or individual to get a patent. If a large company decides to copy your product, you can be spending 100K+ to take them on. Some of which you may get back - if you win. The US patent office seems to allow practically anything to be patented even if it's existed for years in other countries. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 I was reminded of this recent editorial in an engineering magazine... Except for mega-rich companies trying to burn out their competition’s resources or the few truly unique ideas left, I think today’s patent system is a worthless concept for individual inventors and entrepreneurs like us. Without having the revenue and resources of a Fortune 500 company, we’ll always end up on the short end of any litigation. In my opinion, involvement with the patent system is an exercise in frustration, expense, and insanity. Reality is this: A patent is merely a right to sue someone. It does not protect your idea or keep anyone from using it. You have an obligation to fight infringers or you lose your patent. Typical (1st round) litigation averages $500,000. You don’t “win” a patent fight. Since the primary consequence of patent litigation is to burn financial resources, you have merely demonstrated a willingness to spend the most.All patents can be invalidated. Considering the millions of people in the world and the millions of places they may have posted or published ideas and designs, it can probably be shown that with the evidence of those other sources, “Your idea could be reasonably obvious to any practitioner in the field,” and therefore public domain or not patentable. It just gets down to the expense of finding that info. Thinking that there are large companies out there looking to buy your ideas or market your inventions (and still pay you) is an urban myth (albeit a technician one). “Not invented here” (NIH) is their cardinal rule. If you have an idea worth manufacturing, don’t mess around. Either do it or publish it. The market life of technology products today is a year or less. Don’t miss the window of opportunity. It takes two to three years to get a patent (and then what?).Nobody voluntarily pays royalties! You will be ripped off (see item 1 again). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
musht Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 Longer take from Don Lancaster http://www.tinaja.com/pasamp1.asp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Junior8 Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 When I was covering the Toy Fair a few years ago, which is always festooned with anti-photography notices and warnings about copyright I went along to a UK manufacturer's stand where there were several Velcro patches on the displays but no samples attached. When I asked about this I was told with a world weary sigh "The Chinese just pinch them these days! The copies will be here in six months." In reality unless you are Disney or the Bob Marley estate (who are incredibly active in brand protection) you have no chance of preventing someone knocking-off your designs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ramdram Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 Yes well, the above might have some validity. Yet all is not the complete doom and gloom you might think. Around two ago a distant family member had an idea for better fuel injection system in petrol engines. Spoke to the "right people" (no idea who tho') and low and behold got not only a sizable grant to develop the product but was "paired" with an engineering company to do the actual physical hands on nuts and bolts R&D. Said family member will not get all the profits of course but some sort of licensing fee or royalty payments. Watch this space as they say. Still recommend you do some research on getting something similar to the above. To start you off you might consider having a look here: http://www.trevorbaylisbrands.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mutley Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 I actually designed a circuit for theatre comms (aimed mainly at the local Am-Dram society I was involved with at the time) which: When lighting pressed the button to talk to sound, the "lighting" button would light up on sound's console and lighting would be heard in sound's comms. However, sound would only be heard by lighting if sound pressed their "lighting" button. Same goes for SM. So SM could talk to sound, while sound talked to lighting, and lighting talked to SM, all in one-way communication without the other party hearing. Eg; Sound cues to sound only, and lighting cues to lighting only.... Each station also has auxiliary outputs to go to FOH sound for audience announcements, dressing rooms, and/or the bar as appropriate (Being able to talk to the bar's music system was for two reasons: to order drinks for the technicians, and to let them know when the interval was approaching to get pre-ordered drinks ready) http://www.lancs-it.co.uk/img/comms.jpgI'd made one base and was just in the testing process, when they went and bought a Canford system!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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