Quote Originally Posted by Dawgbite View Post
About 15 years ago I had an idea for a unique product and designed and built several for myself and friends. It was a metal product similar in manufacture to what you have. When I started out there was nothing I hated more than somebody telling me what I did wrong or that they had already thought of the idea or that it would never sell, so keep your head up and follow your dream as long as you can. I also considered manufacturing a bell in China, where I manufacture my product, to the point of buying a Battle Bell plus several other designs of bells with the intention of sending them to China for quotes. I even designed a few bells just to get an idea of what I wanted my bell to look like. I did some research on the market and came to the conclusion that there would never be enough demand to sustain the business and my money would be better invested elsewhere. As Blacklistedbully said, MSU cowbells are more sentimental in value than actually valuable, most fans will remember the bell they rang when we became No1 but not what they paid for it or how collectible it is.

If you do get a Patent, consider a Utility patent rather than a design patent and remember that a patent is like a door lock, it will keep an honest man honest but a thief will find a way around it. I'm on my third Patent Lawsuit and they are not cheap. Figure $30,000 to get to arbitration and $200,000 to go all they way to court. If I wanted to, I could buy your bell, send it to China and have a container of 20,000 bells sitting in my warehouse in a couple of months with a retail price of a fraction of your price. I wouldn't do that but everybody is not as honest as I am, trust me I know first hand. Licensing is not expensive but also consider using somebody who is already licensed with the university and instead of engraving maybe an embossed logo or medallion instead of the engraving. With a limited edition, you are limiting yourself to future sales. You can't decide next year to offer a non limited edition for $150 without pissing of your original customer base. Good luck on your endeavor and I admire your entrepreneurial spirit.
Thanks for the insight!