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James Musser (02:09 AM 09.15.2000) wrote: >>But, if a named company comes public with questions about a new idea, you >>can bet that people figure that something is up, and they will take a bit >>more notice. In fact, "they" may be another manufacturer listening in on >>the ensuing conversation. And... They may take enough notice of the >>conversation to start down a similar development path themselves. In >fact, >>they may BEAT the first company to market. > >Uh huh... and this, instead of keeping things at the MINIMUM would open >the >doors for CREATIVE COMPETITION, as well as business competition... Right. Competition for the user base is a wonderful thing because, as you say, we as users will benefit from the companies battling it out over price/features/performance etc. But, the whole point of my soapbox was to try to show why companies do _not_ come public with their ideas. It's one thing for Company B to get wind of a new product coming out from Company A a couple of months before it ships; it's quite another thing for Company B to get wind while Company A is still in design stage. >In other words... they really would have to have a better box, because >having the same thing wouldn't really be any better... this would force >companies to actually seek out better ideas even MORE to compete. Yeup. >Besides... how many really "new" ideas are out there these days... >wouldn't >that be a poll... see why not pool the entire internet on a website and >call it NEWIDEAS.COM and have the "end user Joe Shmoe" put up every >friggin >idea they can... so that the folks with the $$$ can look at it (since >they're too busy watching the books to have good ideas), and freely pick >and choose from the gargantuan list of KILLER IDEAS that the end users >continually provide? It's a great idea, but you would need folks to understand up front that the ideas that hey are submitting are falling into the public domain and that they will NOT be paid for them. I think that once you point something like that out to folks, they may shy away from it. A small example of this type of things comes from my online patch database for a number of synths. I can't remember the last time that I had someone submit a patch to any of them. NO ONE wants to share their work/ideas for fear that someone else will come along and make money from it. >Don't get me wrong, I understand competition and I understand >manufacturing >difficulties... that's why we have patents and copyrights, etc., to >protect >people with new ideas. Right. But going back to addressing the public disclosure of an idea at an early stage, a copyright/patent/trademark will only protect that to a point. You can't get so general such that you stop the potential for competition in a class of product. If we come back around to the MIDI pedal question, I can't protect the idea of creating a MIDI pedal such that someone else couldn't come along and also build one. But, I can protect the firmware that's driving the pedal, unique things about how the pedal works, and specific design/feature points if they are new technology/algorithms/implementations. >I have an awesome new invention for guitarists, but I can't get anyone to >manufacture it, and I can't afford to do it myself. I've had it for nearly >8 years, but can't find a way to get it to the public... it's not always >easy, even though every person who sees this thing says "BANK, dude!" Yeups... This is where you need to hit up a trade show (NAMM probably - 'specially the Nashville show) and start talking to folks that have access to manufacturing facilities. Do you have a prototype or mock-up? We can talk more about this off-line if you'd like. >I guess all the companies can cry "lack of funds", just like me... but I >think it's a little different when you actually have the ability to create >something and don't, just to chince a little more profit out of the deal, >than when you actually cannot pull together the means in the first place >to >get started. Yeup. There are also private investors/venture capital firms out and about that will sit down and listen to you. You need to get a business connection, and that's part of what can happen on the show floor at NAMM. I don't want to move from a soapbox to a NAMM commercial, but ... :) NAMM as an organization does welcome folks shopping ideas. A NAMM show isn't JUST about looking at all the new blinky lights, there are a ton of folks walking the floors looking for help getting ideas to market, just like you are. Just a thought... :) Mark