Just an Idea

T

Tripleeagle

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Yes
Hi there,

I know very little about cameras but whilst handling my DSLR recently I had an idea for improving all DSLRs. It's a simple solution to marginally reduce the cost of camera production and the ease and speed with which the cameras are used.

My first guesses were that I should get a prototype drawn up by some expert and subsequently patent the idea but I wanted to ask a good photography forum what you guys would suggest.

Thanks in advance!
Alex
 
That seems pretty logical. Obviously, as soon as you say what the idea is, anyone can implement it, unless you have patented it.

But there are three important issues you need to think through.

Firstly, economics. How much will it cost you to develop a prototype and get the patent? And how much would it be worth to the camera manufacturers? Since you won't be going into DSLR manufacturing yourself, your only route to commercialisation of your idea is to license or sell it to those who do the manufacturing, so you need to estimate what it's worth to them. How much cost will it save per DSLR? What are the re-tooling costs they would need to incur? And so on.

Secondly, exclusivity. If your idea solves a problem that camera manufacturers didn't know they had, then patenting it means they get to learn about the problem. But if there are other ways of solving it, then they can develop their own solutions without licensing yours. So you need to be sure your patented method is the only way of solving the problem. And you need to be sure that there aren't similar problems which they could be inspired to tackle instead of yours.

Thirdly, enforcement. Let's suppose it is a really clever idea which would be worth a lot to the manufacturers and there's no reasonable alternative to it. How do you find out whether a manufacturer has adopted the idea without bothering to license it from you? (Is it even discernible from the finished product?) And can you afford to take them to court to enforce your patent?

Hope this helps. I am not a lawyer. (Though I have had some practical experience of patents.) You need to talk to a patent lawyer if you want to progress this.
 
Last edited:
What was your idea then???
Quiet intrigued by the build up of your message...
 
Lemaildetom said:
What was your idea then???
Quiet intrigued by the build up of your message...
Click to expand...
I'm noiserly (Sp?) intrigued!

Hardly gonna tell ya is he!
 
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