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Thread: Looking for some advice

  1. #1
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    Default Looking for some advice


    I had an idea a while back, and I've been making some fishing lures in my shop. There's nothing real revolutionary about my idea - it's just a different way of designing and building a lure using materials that are different from what I've ever seen used.

    Now I'm in the "testing" stage - taking them to the lake and making sure everything holds together and that they catch fish (a tough job, but someone's got to do it). That's working out real well, and I think what I've got amounts to a small but significant improvement in my fishing (and catching).

    When I'm completely satisfied with these lures, I'd like to start selling them on eBay and get a web page so people could order them from me. Just a little enterprise on the side for a retired guy.

    But I'm wondering if it's possible to keep the idea from being copied. Once these are out in public, it would be real easy for any tackle company to copy them.

    There are a lot of people on this forum with expertise in different areas. Does anyone here know how I could protect something like this - so I could make and sell the lures at a reasonable price instead of just having the design taken away from me? Thanks.

  2. #2
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    Sam i would think you would have to have a patent search done to make sure your design has'nt been patented already and then apply for one. Try www.uspto.gov and www.litmanlaw.com Hope it helps you...izzy

  3. #3
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    I'm with Izzy. I'd do a search and see.If it's that good I'd maybe get some legal advice. Myself , well I figure that I could have patented at least a dozen differant things but usually by the time I think about it someone like yourself has already beat me to the punch!

  4. #4
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    The patent process will cost you in the range of $10-12 thousand. And big companies will find a way to get around it or just flat copy it and then wear you down in court. They won't run out of money paying lawyers. Will you? Look at BPS with their Stump-Jumper copy of a Roadrunner and about a hundred other lures.
    The problem with a patent is that it can't be something obvious to "one skilled in the art", which is pretty hard to prove for fishing lures.
    Your best defense is a catchy name that you trademark. Then everything else will be known as a copy. Think of the Gitzit, Roadrunner, Senko etc.

  5. #5
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    I agree with cat fan. One of my friends biulds racing engines for go karts and invented a new style dipper. He put a pat. on it and other people copied it by changing the way it looked.
    Go with the trade mark.
    Bill

  6. #6
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    ditto. it only has to be changed 10% in order to be copied. and for fishing lures that's not that hard to do. It has to be a one-of-a-kind can't get it anywhere else thing to make it worth getting a patent.
    Currently a non-fishing slacker! (not for too much longer)

  7. #7
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    Thanks fellers. The idea isn't something radically different or revolutionary - it's just an improvement. I'm sure what you're all saying is right.

    Heck, I'm the same way - I decided several years ago that I like Bass Pro's "Uncle Buck" knockoffs better than original Roostertails, so that's what I buy. The free market ought to be just that, free and competitive.

    So I'll go ahead with these lures, it's probably not something that will catch on anyway. Most ideas don't. I'll try to come up with a good name. And if the lure does catch on, I can at least call mine "the original".

  8. #8
    barrelslime's Avatar
    barrelslime is offline Moderator White Bass/Striper/Hybrid Forum * Crappie.com Supporter
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    If you feel you are on to something big, take it to a tackle co and sell it to them and let them pat. it and have the headaches
    Personal Best 17 1/2"
    " Let us endeavor so to live, that when we come to die, even the undertaker will be sorry." Mark Twain

  9. #9
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    hey you got me curious is it a bass or crappie lure? either way i'll buy one. i'm a sucker for a new lure don't tell my wife.

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by sblack
    hey you got me curious is it a bass or crappie lure? either way i'll buy one. i'm a sucker for a new lure don't tell my wife.
    It's nothing entirely different, just an improvement. It's a new way of making a crappie jig, using different materials for the weight, body, and tail. The result is to slow the drop rate, add some "flash", and improve the action.

    It catches fish for sure. I went to Tablerock yesterday and we brought back 17 good white crappie and a 15" Kentucky bass. I've still got some bugs to work out - two of the jigs came apart after catching a few fish, and I can't have that happen.

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