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I have invented a child's toy. the co i sent it to charge £535 for research, is this usual?

I have invented a child's toy and sent it to 1 company in the UK (Innovate) and 1 company in the USA (Design Mind Group). They have both said it' s a good idea but they charge £535 and £100 respectively to carry out market research and to see if the idea has been patented in other contries - does anyone know if this is the norm for this kind of thing ? thank you
 
Asked by victoria ramsden, January 2009   -  Contact this person

4 Answers

  1. Hi Victoria,

    Patents is a specialist (and potentially expensive!) area, but the £535 fee does seem a little high, when compared to: http://www.ipo.gov.uk/types/patent/p-applying/p-cost.htm

    Lee
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    Answered by Lee Longstaff, January 2009   -  Contact this person
  2. How is your toy protected at the moment?

    Have you asked these two companies to sign a confidentiality agreement?

    My understanding is that once the 'idea' is in the public domain it is virtually impossible to protect so be very careful who you talk to about it.

    Good luck... Neil
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    Answered by Neil Lumby, May 2009   -  Contact this person
  3. You have to be careful when asking people to asses your invention: there are a lot of crooks out there, and the honest ones generally want to sell you other services. I notice, for example, that Innovate are product designers who do patentability assessments: I've not hesard anythign bad about them, but I would have thought that a commercial assessment and a patent search should precede any kind of product design.

    This might help: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Inventors-Innovators-Kick-start-Guide-Commercialise/dp/0954999509/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1244746476&sr=1-7
    - they're even discounting it at the moment.
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    Answered by Jules May, June 2009   -  Contact this person
  4. You should contact your local Business Link and ask for a specialist advisor - someone with experience of bringing product to market.
    http://www.businesslinkyorkshire.co.uk/
    This is my local group - Ask for John McSweeny or Neil Campbell. Both are excellent for different reasons. Start with John (he knows more about product to Market)
    The other things you can try are joinging a UK Incubation Unit - most have free advice to new start-up businesses.
    There is a great guy who invented something called the i Teddy which has been very successful. If you could google it and research a bit you could probably contact the inventor and ask him for some mentoring. - If you have no joy post again and I'll use some contacts I have to track him down.
    Good luck with it!
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    Answered by Nicola Edwards, June 2009   -  Contact this person

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