Well, hello, alt.inventors readers.
And if accepted by moderation, hello rec.crafts.metalworking, my favorite newsgroup!
It certainly has been a while since I dropped by here!
A medical professional (I won't disclose the specific field of this invention yet) I work with as a patient (a client) and as an experimental machinst (I repaired a bit of gear for this person and was paid for that work) asked me to design a device of stainless steel, performing a certain fuction, for their use and for manufacture and sale, offering me some rights, and I did so. I have a sketch I made from their oral description of the function.
Later, this person found an existing cataloged working device performing the required function and abandoned the design project. About a year later, after many attempts from me to collect some money for my work, this person paid me for my contribution: $125 for 27 hours of my time. The design work is archived on computer and noted on a single unbound page in my unsigned, handwritten, not-notarized journal. There are about a dozen neatly dated versions on the computer over a few months but anybody can hack the clock on a Windows 98 system, so someone could argue that was faked. A reasonable person would believe it and my associate isn't the type to go that route.
The catalog device is made from about a dozen bits of stainless steel brazed together and has uncleanable recesses where moving parts are permanently nested with rolled edges, forming a contained piston supported by a spring. My design is unitary; it's all one piece with an option for assembly with two small screws instead of unitary tabs to allow dissassembly for cleaning to standards for sterile instruments. I think the two screws are a good option to establish superiority of the design. It seems much cheaper to manufacture than the existing device, although a market study is lacking.
It's manufacturable and I have quotes for singles and volume finished to commercial standards from Emachineshop.com by local computation of CAD, but there may have been an indicental disclosure to them during devlopment by transmission of an intermediate design as I worked with bugs in their free software. I'd like to patent this as my designed but I wonder about my rights and the strategy. I have chosen an attorney but not paid a retainer. There's a medical device manufacturer in Annandale, nearby, who has not seen the design.
Actually it was a Good Thing to wait a year. I have refined the design. It's solid. It's a high-scrap design of stainless sheet, but manufacturers do recycle such sheets. Unitary construction frequently requires a high scrap rate with complex geometries being cut from sheet to make an implement. I think that's the only down side.
This would be my first patent. I've invented hundreds of things but a collaboration is always sound business practice. I also have some funding for the first time in my life! I think there's an adequate amount for patent application, and other expenses. There is a government operated business development agency right around the corner. I would trust them.
I think my medical professional associate might take a dollar to release the rights, but certainly has the right to argue for more. All this person actually did was let me know about the need for such an implement. They didn't participate in design but did let me know at one point how to shape a feature. I could write something up. I have an option for some free non-patent legal help with that document.
Do any of you readers have any advice?
My 3 previous posts in alt.inventors are here:
Composed in Google. Copy to self by email.
Doug Goncz Replikon Research (DUNS 738774974) Seven Corners, VA 22044-0394