From Ideal to Real - Part 6: Hurry Up and Wait

I want to have it all out there. I want to be able to start selling these bags and see if this can be the success I know it can be. Anyone who knows me knows that not being able to share this far and wide is driving me crazy.

But doing things the right way requires more patience than I typically like to exercise.

I really want to start RFPing factories but both patent lawyers I spoke to said that they advise that I wait until we put in for the provisional patent before I move forward. And that goes double for sharing the unique ideas with everyone on social media.

I knew it would take at least a month before I could start figuring out costs and timelines and who knows how long before I can spill the beans here. In the grand scheme of things, a month will never matter, but I want an Oompa Loompa NOW!

In all seriousness, the learning curve for all of the legalities is fascinating. Patents are crazy things. They may offer protections, but they take a very long time to get (3+ years), cost thousands of dollars (estimates have ranged $8K-$12K all in, and I think that's just US), and they don't totally protect someone from knocking off your product, especially in another country. You can go through all that time and money only to find out that your idea wasn't actually original enough to qualify and now people with more resources than you have are out producing your product and there ain't nothing you can do about it.

But without it? No protections at all.

I'm trying to be smart about this and look big picture. But it doesn't make it any easier to wait.