- Mon Sep 10, 2007 3:34 pm
#13092
Hello, everyone!
This summer I worked for an uncle who owns a deck painting/staining business. As we worked we tried coming up with a few ideas on how to get each deck painted in a shorter amount of time...the time = money concept. I came up with a fairly simple but cool idea for a new paint applicator and made a few sketches of it. I showed my uncle and he thought it was a pretty good idea and said if I made it, he would try it out for a few days. So I did and he did. Anyways, this new 'brush' worked great and even by the end of the first day he was complaining every time he had to go back to using a regular paint brush. Over the summer we worked out all of the flaws, but since this applicator is cut/welded from parts of other brushes on the market, it isn't very pretty! It works well and on paper it looks great, but it could use a little professional design help. My uncle swears by it and the time it saves, and he's been painting these same style decks for a little over 10 years, so he would know.
I'll get to the point. What's my next step here? My uncle says I definitely need to try to sell it, but I'm not sure where to start. Patenting is far too expensive, patent pending is still too costly (college student + books/tuition = flat broke!) but possibly an option, and I've heard it would be difficult to get companies to sign a non-disclosure agreement. Who do I contact? I'm assuming I make a list of paint brush/paint supply companies, but not sure where to find an extensive list. A website, perhaps?
ANY help would be much appreciated!
Todd
This summer I worked for an uncle who owns a deck painting/staining business. As we worked we tried coming up with a few ideas on how to get each deck painted in a shorter amount of time...the time = money concept. I came up with a fairly simple but cool idea for a new paint applicator and made a few sketches of it. I showed my uncle and he thought it was a pretty good idea and said if I made it, he would try it out for a few days. So I did and he did. Anyways, this new 'brush' worked great and even by the end of the first day he was complaining every time he had to go back to using a regular paint brush. Over the summer we worked out all of the flaws, but since this applicator is cut/welded from parts of other brushes on the market, it isn't very pretty! It works well and on paper it looks great, but it could use a little professional design help. My uncle swears by it and the time it saves, and he's been painting these same style decks for a little over 10 years, so he would know.
I'll get to the point. What's my next step here? My uncle says I definitely need to try to sell it, but I'm not sure where to start. Patenting is far too expensive, patent pending is still too costly (college student + books/tuition = flat broke!) but possibly an option, and I've heard it would be difficult to get companies to sign a non-disclosure agreement. Who do I contact? I'm assuming I make a list of paint brush/paint supply companies, but not sure where to find an extensive list. A website, perhaps?
ANY help would be much appreciated!
Todd