My partner and I have invented a new childrens toy.What to do?

Peakma

My partner is always coming up with brilliant money making ideas,,inventions etc. If any of them were available to buy,I'm sure they'd sell really well, it's just how do you get from the idea stage to the getting it on the shop shelves stage? without someone ripping you off along the way.
He has recently invented a really simple kids toy, he's made a prototype,and we as a family have been happily playing with it for the last few days.It would cost pennies to produce and would retail around £3.And could easily the next latest craze.
So what to we do?? Apart from going on the Dragons den,how do you do it? We are both quite shy and not confident business people,have no money to invest in the idea,and it would probably be easily ripped off.But he thinks it could be the simple idea he needs to turn us into millionaires(well you have to dream dont you!)
Any ideas?

geordie_joe

You need to patent it first. Unless you do that anyone could rip you off.

You could also give Dragons Den a go, but you know how tough that could be.

kazwookie

Patent it first,

Then I would suggest get about 50 or so made up, take them to the local school, cubs, nursery etc and see what the kids make of them.

I am not sure but you might also have to get them tested to European standard, and releant standards for paint and not falling to pieces, no chocking hazards etc

ALso consider who is going to mass prodcut them for you?

Scribble

First things first, check it hasn't been done before. Toy companies patent their ideas even if they never made it to market so just because you've never seen one doesn't meant they don't exist. Therefore you might need to get a patent lawyer to do a patent search and definitely advise you on applying for a patent. Patenting something is an expensive process and to do this worldwide costs quite a bit. I also think you have to keep things under wraps a bit until it's patented... check with a lawyer, or at least do some looking into the subject... this site might be useful http://www.espacenet.com/index.en.htm

After that, you're in a much stronger position to sell it to other companies. The kind of competition out there and I think the marketing involved would put you at a disadvantage as a small company so selling it to someone else to take forward might be viable. You'd at least need to get shops to carry it at the expense of other products that could be better sellers. Still yours COULD be a craze, but if it takes off and doing it alone you'd have to cope with demand and capitalise on the success.

I'd get a business agreement drawn up with my partner if it was me, too... It just keeps it clean if *anything* unplanned happened.

skiddy2k

check out Google Patents