Most of the larger manufacturers will require you to sign their submission documents before they will look at your information. These documents are designed to protect the manufacturer against an individual’s claiming that the company took his idea. The submission documents usually state that by signing them you are aware that they may have already seen, been working on or previously rejected the same or a similar idea. If you want to move forward with them you must sign these forms.
Submission forms that you send to manufacturers can also be considered part of your “paper trail” of proof that you disclosed your invention to them should you ever need it. Be sure to keep copies of everything in your files.
If the company is not ethical and you show your unprotected invention or idea to them, they can simply take it. Therefore, the thing to remember is to make sure that you have carefully followed your early protective procedures before approaching anyone regarding licensing. They protect themselves and you should do likewise.
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One option to get around this problem, if you plan to manufacture and distribute your own product, is to place your product with an independent product representative. This is a person who represents a number of products from various manufacturers to the retailers. Be aware, if you do this, that you will have to pay the product representative a percentage of the sales for this representation. This can make a significant difference in your profit bottom line, but it may be the only way that you can get your product into the large retail chains.
You can find product representatives by contacting administrative offices of the retail stores and asking them for the names of the reps for your category of products. Product representatives usually cover a specific geographic region. For example, there may be a product representative who covers Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana. The entire country is divided into exclusive regions for the individuals representing specific lines of products. This approach may require you to contact product representatives all over the country in order to get maximum market coverage for your product, but it can work.
In addition to individual product representatives, for many categories of products there are distributors. These are companies that handle the distribution of an entire category of products to select retailers. When we were marketing Ghostline® on our own, before licensing the product, we sold some product to a distributor who got Ghostline® into stores in a seven-state area. This involved another layer of wholesaling (from us to the distributor and from the distributor to the retailer), but if your profit margin is great enough, you can get greater distribution this way.
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