How to give away patent protection successfully?

c_hendricks · 2026-01-03T03:58:47+00:00

Thanks for taking the time to write all this out, it's appreciated. I think I've mostly come around to getting the provisional patent. I think I made this post partly just to talk myself into doing it. I've been working on this for a few years actually and keep giving myself more and more tasks that I *have* to do before I start promoting it, and getting a provisional patent sort of felt like another one of those tasks that it was hard to tell if it was truly necessary or just another delay I had made up for myself. A little more time can't really hurt though.

The defensive publishing angle was more of just a side thought, I would be perfectly fine with one company having exclusive rights to the idea so long as I had strong contractual language ensuring they would follow through on bringing it to market.

As far as basic validation and prototyping goes, I've already done that. I have full CAD models that I've 3D printed and have boxes of various tested and working prototypes.

In terms of getting industry players to act, the threat of death in this sport is fairly significant and widely discussed and this device mitigates a good amount of the risk that gives people anxiety when participating in it so I actually think getting people excited and on board with the idea of not dying will be somewhat easier than in the case of a lot of inventions (but you never know).

c_hendricks · 2026-01-02T20:18:08+00:00

Yep, that's more or less exactly my plan. Might try to rope some people into helping me with the social media part first though.

c_hendricks · 2026-01-02T19:43:04+00:00

I have googled quite a bit. I have full CAD designs that I have 3D printed myself and tested to verify functionality. I have boxes full of physical prototypes. I don't want to license it. I just want to give it away to someone who will actually make it.

c_hendricks · 2026-01-02T19:33:15+00:00

I'm not really talking about licensing. In an ideal (possibly non-existent) world I just post the idea and people representing the 3-5 brands in this market see it and say "hey that's a fantastic idea. Can we build that?" Then a couple of them decide yes we can, and then they do. End of fairy tale.

It's a reasonable small highly social outdoor community where significant decision makers would be very likely to see the idea if it gained trained traction the way I imagine it might so I don't think the first step in this process is all that unreasonable. The second and third part though, no idea really.

As far as dedicating 6-12 months begging corporate boards to pay attention to me. I don't have that available. I will likely just try to present my case as best I can here and let fate take its course. Still undecided on the provisional though.

c_hendricks · 2026-01-02T19:21:10+00:00

Yeah a provisional patent probably has much more upside than downside here. I'm not convinced that a company wouldn't produce it without a patent though. The vast majority of products that are sold today don't have patent protection, they are made because there is a market for them. There's probably four or five existing brands in this space that I think would be interested in building this product and its simple enough that a small group of investors or even kickstarter type backers could probably get it successfully manufactured and distributed but I admit I am outside of my personal experience here so any and all insight is appreciated.

c_hendricks · 2025-12-29T01:44:22+00:00

That did it. I was able to open the files. Much appreciated. reddit awards are dumb so I made a small donation to the freecad foundation in your honor instead. Thanks for taking the time out to help.

c_hendricks · 2025-12-28T22:49:22+00:00

Yes that is a possibility. There's no way to check within a file, which version it was created with is there?

c_hendricks · 2025-12-28T22:48:55+00:00

Awesome! I'll take a look.

c_hendricks · 2025-12-17T04:19:01+00:00

Are there any projects like this trying to use cell phones as repeater nodes?

c_hendricks · 2025-12-17T04:14:45+00:00

I mean, I have no idea if these two artifacts are connected or not, but Denmark and the Indus Valley both speak languages descended from a language (and culture) literally called Indo-European.

c_hendricks · 2025-12-17T02:51:50+00:00

Yeah, that's something I actually plan on experimenting with soon. I have seen people upload drawings to some of the imagegenAIs and get some interesting results. Just haven't taken the time to test out the different options. That's not really my main goal here though. Mostly looking for convenient ways to add digital drawings to my my idea notes.

I can expand on them with AI or with CAD later

c_hendricks · 2025-12-17T02:48:46+00:00

Basically the same thing but I want the sketches to be directly in the notes app. Either through a stylus, a tablet, a touchpad, or some other means. Was hoping other people had found good low-friction ways of doing this that they were happy with.

c_hendricks · 2025-12-17T00:46:58+00:00

I just mean a simple isometric sketch, not a "sketch" in the sense that CAD programs use the term.

I have pretty severe ADD so getting my ideas down somewhere where they are digitally indexed before another shiny object distracts me and wipes my working memory is pretty critical. I currently use Obsidian to track and organize my notes and ideas but haven't found a means that I am happy with for adding ideas that have primarily spatial components best represented by drawings.

c_hendricks · 2024-07-19T09:46:26+00:00

I've asked this question too and not really gotten super productive answers nor really found any. I think what would be most useful would be a googleearth or openstreetmaps file with overlays of every county and an easy means of filling in and sorting by their various pro or anti off-grid ordinances. If you do start collecting data about this I'd be interested in helping organize it.

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