OSDev.org

Hello everybody,

While my osdev project isn't very active but will hopefully shortly restart and go further, I invented a new firing mechanism of assault rifles. I reviewed other mechanisms and it seems that mine is unique, it has a bullpup architecture.
My dream would be to produce and sell it but I haven't enough finances to build a factory, the options I'm considering:
- Get a patent: The risk maybe that someone/company will take the idea, modify some parts and produce before I could set up anything, spending money on lawayers will be a huge problem since companies have better contacts and much more money. If I get a patent I must pay fees for every country which recognizes patent's system, but I suspect I will cost too much.
- Find a business angel, but how to make a deal without disclosing the invention, can I rely on them? Once the production begins then get a patent to protect the company.

Did you have any strategy, idea, whatever?

to the best of my knowledge patents are in practice international. you will want the patent before you start looking for angels.

Firstly, are you really sure the world needs another way for people to kill each other? In my opinion, it really doesn't. Nevertheless:

I would suggest a first step would be doing some research and writing a document that basically proves your firing mechanism is better. You'll want cold hard statistics and facts. This can then be used either to attract investors or as the core of a business plan, or to show off your product to a weapons manufacturer or whatnot.

I would also suggest filing for a patent as soon as possible. As far as I am aware, they takes ages to get, so best to start immediately.

In my opinion, you should have some technical document, with a full business plan and financial plan, and convince yourself to pull out a few millions or form a small company with partners, to sustain the expense for patents and more research.

If you decided the risk is too high, the angels will think so too.
If you are not risking a million to do more serious business, why an angel will bet a billion on you?

PS. Provision patent should not be too expensive, which supposed to claim your idea for the first year before you actually submit a detail.
Check the patent office or ask an lawyer.

If I were a business entity, the only thing I'd be concerned with is, 'Is this idea actually practical?'. Chances are that the idea arouse from nowhere and doesn't have enough research behind it. If it were really that innovative, I'd first start with sketching the design and how this idea could actually be brought in action without much hassles. Then I'd present a proof of research that this design is actually welcoming and outclasses the existing designs.The last thing I'd worry about is the patent.

(Not meaning to underestimate you or anything, but you haven't mention anything about your background or how you got into this field and for how long have you been working on it?)

@Merlin
No you must pay consequently more to get a patent in almost all countries.

@JackScott
Sometimes you are must defend your homeland, if a country hasn't a strong army it will just become a colony.
I wrote a draft document on how it works in details to send to patent's office, I also made some sketches, they are so ugly that I'm the only one who can understand it.

@bluemoon
Exact, I think that I will also send a mail to the Minister of Defence to see what can he propose to me. It would be good to make a 3D simulation but I'm far from this domain.

@Chandra
I'm "working" on this since 1 year. I'm 99% sure that it works. The thing is that when I return to home my eyes are tired so I can't do osdev/casual programming/Internet, so I'm trying to make sketches of original assault rifles (it's a great challenge) and read books.

I'm worried that Taiwan didn't recognises patent's "international" law.

narke wrote:My dream would be to produce and sell it but I haven't enough finances to build a factory, the options I'm considering:

You certainly wouldn't want to build a factory. For a single part, you would have it manufactured by an existing manufacturer under contract.

narke wrote:- Get a patent: The risk maybe that someone/company will take the idea, modify some parts and produce before I could set up anything, spending money on lawayers will be a huge problem since companies have better contacts and much more money. If I get a patent I must pay fees for every country which recognizes patent's system, but I suspect I will cost too much.

You need to get a patent in your region. You can then work on expanding patent coverage as you see necessary. That said, if you are looking at getting into international supply on a large scale, then you will have significantly large scaling costs - and thus funding requirements. Patents won't be your largest cost by any means.

narke wrote:- Find a business angel, but how to make a deal without disclosing the invention, can I rely on them? Once the production begins then get a patent to protect the company.

To be honest, this is the best reason to get a patent. A VC is much more likely to get involved if you have some degree of IP protection.

You will, however, be entirely unable to make deals without disclosing anything. A typical VC firm I have contact with processes around 3000 business propositions per year, and invests in 5 or 6. Most of them will be binned in the first 5 minutes. Those that get invested in will involve around 6 months of investigation - looking at the scale of market opportunities, how you will be able to build the business, whether the team of people you can pull together will work etc. This is a very involved process.

Fundamentally to build a business, you have to build a relationship of trust with the people you work with (and there will be many people involved). If you aren't willing to do that, you won't have a business. Remember that Angel funds/VCs provide a lot more than money - they have spent their careers building businesses with people who have ideas. They know how to construct the network of people needed to make a business work. Remember, however, that they are looking to fund a business proposition - not an idea in isolation. You need to do your homework, put together a strong, quantitative, business case.

I'd replace the hammer with a laser, putting a transparent window in the back end of the cartridge - that would make the mechanism completely silent, and when you run out of bullets you can try to blind the enemy with the laser instead.

More importantly, you want a camera on the gun which decides whether you're morally entitled to shoot the target - that's the point where it needs to run an OS, thereby making this a topic relevant to this forum.

DavidCooper wrote:and when you run out of bullets you can try to blind the enemy with the laser instead.

The UN might have something to say about that.

JackScott wrote:Firstly, are you really sure the world needs another way for people to kill each other? In my opinion, it really doesn't.

+1.

narke wrote: @JackScott
Sometimes you are must defend your homeland, if a country hasn't a strong army it will just become a colony.

Most importantly in this post, to quote Bill Hicks.

Here's what we can do to change the world, right now, to a better ride - take all that money that we spend on weapons and defense each year, and instead spend it feeding, clothing and educating the poor of the world, which it would many times over, not one human being excluded, and we could explore space, together, both inner and outer, for ever, in peace.

Here are the sources.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX1CvW38cHA http://www.endevil.com/billhickslines.html

And to paraphrase Bill Hicks - If anyone here designing weapons - shoot yourself. This of course goes as a joke/pun. Weapons, shoot yourself... Get it? But I don't wish you luck with your design and patent. Source. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDW_Hj2K0wo

I do recommend Bill as a comedian too.

Rest in peace, Bill Hicks.

Blacklight wrote:

DavidCooper wrote:and when you run out of bullets you can try to blind the enemy with the laser instead.

The UN might have something to say about that.

Let me get this straight, they allow shooting a person, but don't allow making him/her blind? Kids these days. IMO war is illegal.

And I don't believe in patents. I also don't really like licenses, but I think I'll utilize the laws and make one that does not allow using the software in question for military, weaponry, etc. and, of course, use it for my software. Here's some food for though regarding intellectual property. http://harmful.cat-v.org/economics/inte ... _property/

To finish it off. I believe the world can become an utopia. We can make machines do our work. And we make enough food for 11 billion people each year already. It's just that this food does not go where it belongs. And talking about education - imagine what intellectual potential we loose by not educating everybody in the world.

This "you need weapons in order to defend yourself" is probably the stupidest misconception of all.

War is about resources. If you need something you can't get and it is so vital to you that you can't live without it you might consider taking it by force when other options are unavailable. A resource could be as simple as food for your family or complex as fueling your economy by acquiring oil. It's not about things like religion or ideology. Those are only tools used to unite people under the same banner.

So if me and my neighbor both have a life with an abundance of resources - why would I feel threatened by him or more importantly why would he wan't to attack me? Why would anyone of us need a weapon?

To avoid war you need to share resources equally among all people in the world as much as you possibly can. To avoid conflict you need to be ready to show compassion by giving up parts of your own living standard for someone somewhere else you don't know and never met and honestly for a wealthy country this is basically nothing.

Now this sounds very simple and often a conflict can take a very complex form but it can always be stripped down to this fight over resources.

Thank you, thank you, we all need a dose of Swedish political correctness. We don't need guns, we only need marxism and everything will be just fine.

narke, if you believe you can make money on your invention I think you should go through the hazzle with a patent. If you go to any company with your invention and they'll see it, it's basically out and they can copy it and even patent it themselves. Patents were from the beginning intended to protect people like you even if this system have become perverted lately. I'm no weapon expert, but a firing mechanism can probably quickly be investigated and reversed engineered, I think at least.

@Jezze
Most often one doesn't ask for help but unilaterally invade another country and sometimes make a heavy propaganda to rewrite the history.
Your theory doesn't works, just see who started wars those last decades, small poor countries or rich ones? The answer is obvious.

@OSwhatever
Yes it would be easy to appropriate an invention, I will apply for a patent.

I can share with you that I discovered a tool for technical drawing, it's a recommended step when filling a patent, this tool is qcad.