What do I do with a product idea.

[zaraki]

If I don't have the money to bring a product to the market, and if I approach a company who make similar products to try and sell the idea, surely they would just say they're not interested and then go ahead and make the product themselves if it were in their interest? I don't have money to protect the idea, nor sue anyone. So I am just wondering what is the point?

 

[webgeek]

Going in with a Non Disclosure Agreement in place, before discussing an particulars, is generally considered good form.

However, any time you "give" an idea away without getting immediate compensation, you are risking the idea growing legs and walking off.

 

[Paul_Rosser]

As WebGeek says you need an NDA before speaking to anyone, but depending on the product how easy it would be for them to take the idea, change enough to not get into trouble and then make something very similar is always an issue.

First of all you need to find out if the product has a market at the price you would be able to make it for, but for this you will need to speak with other people and share your idea.

 

[lazypbx]

Have you looked into patenting the idea first before talking to anyone about it? I guess it's a bit of catch 22 as you probably want to find out if there's a market and it's a viable option before going through the effort of copyright/patenting it, but then you probably don't want to talk to anyone about it without protecting your idea!

As the other's say, an NDA is certainly important before you disclose any information to somebody else. The other thing that I've heard suggested is to write everything down in as much detail as possible, put it in a sealed envelope and post it to yourself recorded delivery and keep the sealed envelope somewhere safe. I don't think this method will hold up to much on it's own from a legal perspective, but it could be used to back up your NDA and prove the idea was originally yours should somebody run off and create your product later on.