I wish you the best of success with your venture, I truly do. Just to add a little realists insight on what you said:
You mentioned getting a patent on the idea. Patents range anywhere from $5000-$15,000 just in lawyer fees, that is for a US patent. The Chinese will not give to shits about Your US patent, will buy one of your item at retail price, reverse engineer it, and bring it to market at a fraction of the price that you are asking. I have worked in some form of manufacturing for roughly 20 years now and I've seen all sides of this. Also you will not be able to patent the drip tip, the goo that goes inside of the drip tip that freezes and returns to some sort of solid or liquid state (Someone already has the patent on those substances), or the plastic or acrylic or whatever you will use that will house the goo (somebody already has the patent on those substances as well)
I would highly recommend forgetting the patent on a manufactured consumer good, develop your product and sell as many as you can as fast as you can, before the Chinese cut you off at the armpits.
It would only take some cross referencing on materials banned in both countries to rule out the Chinese attempting to copycat a product. It may be a similar product made with different material, but they would not have the time to perfect the product and figure out what's best unless stumbling upon this thread. Which China has a firewall not allowing direct access to other countries. That would require them to use a proxy, VPN, or other sorts of methods to even gaze at this forum. Yada yada, I'm sure you know all this.
I appreciate your honesty and expertise in the industry but it only takes a creative mind to work out the kinks. The price of a patent, $5,000-$15,000 isn't bad at all if you plan to add zeros to the end. If you have the right credibility, resources, and knowledge a bank would surely lend you that money if you have a great credit score.
There are many plants that create plastics, I'm sure I can easily find plants that aren't allowed to be grown in China. After you sell the prototype and make a name for yourself, banks will be willing to loan more money to you which will then allow you to invest in the second version of the product. The second version, to make it interesting, would include a layer of
this plant weaved to form a sleeve over the tip. Thus absorbing leftover condensation, adding grip, and aesthetic appeal. Since you've made it so far in the company to make a second version of the product, you figure cheap labor will make up for the cost of branching out. So you provide labor to Mexico where
this plant is legal. The fact that the material would be made out of plants, kills the possibility of someone having a patent.
From legalmatch.com "
You can patent pretty much anything under the sun that is made by man except laws of
nature, physical phenomena, and abstract ideas. These categories are excluded subject matter from the scope of patents."
To actually form a patent, I'd add something very small to the product that is man made. Something on the inside, which I already have countless things it could be.
Lol, I understand I'm going overboard with it but anything's possible.
