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SERVICES At A Glance Docie tailors its services to meet the diverse needs of inventors. Depending on your circumstances, your project may qualify for fee-based services, commission-only services, or a combination of both. Please read to the end of this page to understand all of your various choices. Free Evaluation Our initial screening is when we first decide whether to undertake your invention project, on what basis and under which terms. If your project is accepted, we make you an offer to provide you the services you need. DOCIE DEVELOPMENT
services If your project has advanced to the point that it is ready for negotiation, then you will qualify for the services of Docie Development. Docie Development works for its clients on a commission basis, unless the client prefers another arrangement. Docie Development receives a portion of the proceeds that you, our client, receive. As you make money, we make money. All sales, marketing, licensing, negotiation and other commercialization services are performed by Docie Development. These services are offered only after we are satisfied that the appropriate companies have been targeted and a commercialization strategy has been finalized. TRADE SHOWS Our special trade show service is one of the best values in this industry. No matter what your stage of invention development, trade shows are extremely effective. Your invention needs NOT be disclosed to others to get great mileage from a trade show. Trade shows are appropriate and recommended in most circumstances. Trade shows save time and money! Much of the Phase work outlined below can be accomplished at a trade show, thus saving time and expenses. See our Trade Show section for complete details. DOCIE MARKETING
services Always - 100% Satisfaction
Guaranteed! Phase I This initial market investigation is done by our researchers in the field; additionally we analyze your patent or patent search results for its potential marketability and explore market applications, competitive factors and perform a general analysis of the industry. Cost: Generally $750 or less Phase II In-depth analysis of the market, manufactures serving the market, interviews with key executives, development of a commercialization strategy, targeting of potential licensees. Cost: Sliding scale, from as low as $1,995 to $4,995 Phase III Initiate contact with the key industry decision-makers, refine commercialization strategies, determine projected invention value, develop performance standards and proposed key contract terms. Cost: Sliding scale from $1,995 to $4,995 CONSULTATION / MENTORING You do the footwork and perform most of the same things we would do in Phases I through III, under the direction of Ron Docie, Sr., President, Docie Marketing. You can use The Inventor's Bible as a complete how-to guide to go step-by-step through the phases. Each week or two consult briefly with Mr. Docie to discuss your findings and receive detailed instruction about how to proceed next. This leads you directly to Docie Development's negotiation services where Mr. Docie takes over to help complete any perspective deals. Cost: Hourly rate, budget between $500 and $1,500 or so. In the event that you only desire a commission-based service only, please click here for FREE advice and how to obtain nearly all your own services for no charge. Special services available from Docie Marketing or Ronald L. Docie, Sr., include: Invention Valuation Please phone us with any questions about our services and fees. Docie Invention Services The Details What Services Do You Need? Docie offers a full range of marketing, licensing and commercialization services. The following information is meant to help you understand your need for services. A lot depends on your developmental stage, your understanding of the market, your desire to perform work on your own, and your budget. From this you can determine how Docie Marketing and/or Docie Development may serve your needs. Pre-patent Docie can help you save thousands on patenting costs by performing certain basic market research prior to patenting. We can usually do this without revealing your invention or trade secrets. Trade shows are particular useful for this. In the vast majority of instances in which inventors approach us prior to having a patent search preformed, we advise that a patent search be performed prior to considering the services of Docie Marketing or Docie Development. Since less than one percent of all patents are ever marketed, it is very possible that even though you have never seen an invention like yours on the market, someone may have a patent on it or on something strikingly similar. The degree to which this is the case will effect your commercialization strategy. Patent screening A patent attorney or agent will review your invention for its potential patentability. Patent professionals will normally not render an opinion with regard to potential marketability. You may submit your invention to Docie Marketing with a copy of your patent, or the results of your patent search and we will render our opinion of marketability and its licensing potential. This is not to suggest that we will be able to determine if your invention will make a million dollars based on the patent information. Rather, we use this as a screening process to determine that there may be limitations in the marketability of your invention based on the crowdedness of patents in your field and other potential limitations in the claims of the various patents. Remember, Docie Marketing has every incentive to recommend that you proceed with us for further marketing development, however, the fact is that more times than not, we end up advising inventors against pursuing their invention further based on the various factors we find through this screening process. Market screening We have seen so many inventions over the past quarter century that sometimes inventors submit inventions to us that are a duplication of ones presented from the past. Additionally, because of our familiarity in many different industries, we will sometimes know about the potential non-viability of an invention from prior experience. You may not have ever seen your invention on the market, yet something similar or identical to it may have been attempted behind the scenes without common public knowledge. It would be senseless to pursue an invention that is known to have fatal barriers. It is also very possible that your invention has commercial possibilities, however, Docie Marketing may not provide the most suitable service for your needs. In this case we will make referrals to other more appropriate services. In the event your invention passes the patent search screening and the preliminary marketability and licenseability screening, you may qualify for one of Docie Marketing's or Docie Development's services. In this case, you would normally start with Phase I and work through the various phases of Docie Marketing. The Phases In the event you have already performed market research in the field, or are intimately familiar with your field of invention, you may forgo any one of the three primary market research Phases. If you have the names of potential manufacturers or licensees in your field, you know the various lines of distribution, and are familiar with the various applications for your invention, then you may forego Phase I and start with Docie Marketing's Phase II services. In the event you know exactly which companies you want to be doing business with, their market positions and have complete background business and financial information on your potential candidates, then you may bypass Phase II and proceed directly to Docie Marketing's Phase III services. If you are ready for negotiation, then you may bypass Docie marketing's services altogether and proceed directly to the services of Docie Development for negotiation and commercialization. In order to bypass all three of Docie Marketing's phases, you must have the names and contact information for each key decision maker who is appropriate for negotiating the licensing of your invention, have complete background information on the potential candidates, have satisfied yourself as to the commercialization strategy with regard to exclusivity vs. non-exclusivity, have established minimum performance standards, estimated royalty rates, and/or a market value for your invention or technology, and know the strategy and sequence for which you will make initial and ongoing contact and negotiation with the potential candidate(s). These are all critical elements for successful negotiation and Docie Development must fully understand these in order to maximize our chance of success for you. It is also important for your own satisfaction to know that you are positioned appropriately to take advantage of every opportunity. Ways In Which Docie Marketing Can Help. In order to maximize the success of your invention, a certain amount of background knowledge and research is necessary so that all parties may make informed decisions and develop the best commercialization strategy; one that maximizes your profit potential and makes your invention available to the most number of people who can benefit from it. Unless you are an industry insider who has all the pertinent information at your figure tips, you will need to have either the time or the money or both, to perform the background research about your industry, or hire someone to do it for you. The purpose of Docie Marketing's Phases I, II and III services is to provide this valuable service for you. For this, we generally charge a fee. In the course of performing this service, we are essentially putting together the elements for the marketing section of a business plan should you decide to eventually commercialize the invention on your own rather than licensing it out to a third party company. As you may imagine, very few people are interested in performing a level of service like this without being reimbursed accordingly. In the course of performing these services, Docie Marketing is not in position to benefit from the commercialization of your invention because this is not the purpose of Docie Marketing's services. Docie Marketing's sole purpose is to gather the background information necessary to prepare commercialization through licensing or otherwise. We segregate our services in this fashion so that they can be custom tailored to your particular needs. As Bear Bryant said, "It is not the will to win, but the willingness to PREPARE to win that makes the difference." In this regard, Docie Marketing does the preparation, while Docie Development engages in the competition, i.e., negotiation. In the event you do not have the financial resources to hire Docie Marketing for this market research, you may be able to do so on your own, and Docie Marketing can provide assistance with this as well. The book, The Inventors Bible by Ronald L. Docie, Sr. is a complete how-to guide to marketing and licensing your invention. It leads you step-by-step through the same market research Phases that are performed by Docie Marketing. If this is something you have the time to do and feel qualified, you may be able to effectively achieve all the research necessary to get your invention to the stage of negotiation. An additional service offered by Docie Marketing is mentoring through consultation. This works most efficiently when you use The Inventors Bible as a guide. In this event, you would essentially be performing the leg work under the guidance of Mr. Docie. This is quite an economical way to go about this because a little bit of consultation goes a long way, for example, a small retainer may last for a few months. You would perform market research on your own and report the findings to Mr. Docie. Mr. Docie would consider your findings and advise as to the next step for you to take. This would entail, for example, a 15 to 20 minute conversation once or twice per month. Before you know it, you and Mr. Docie will both be familiar with your invention's market potential and the associated barriers. From this a strategy can be developed to the point that you may then retain the services of Docie Development. In this way your expenses and risks are minimal and you still have the opportunity to retain Docie Development for final negotiations with third party companies. Yet another alternative is to simply take the advice found in The Inventors Bible and perform this process on your own, submitting your invention to companies that seem appropriate and fielding offers from them. This is usually easier said than done, however, certainly not impossible. Much depends on your expertise and comfort level. You may be comfortable doing certain in-field market research and interviewing, but not be as effective over the telephone. Likewise, your telephone skills may shine, however, you may be weak in the negotiation phase when a deal must be finalized. Docie Marketing can help you evaluate your own strengths and weaknesses and work with you to help fill in the gaps, whether it be for a fee, for commission-only, advice through The Inventors Bible, or consultation. We tailor our service to meet your needs. (The following is linked to FREE Services above) If you believe that all invention marketing services should be for commission-only, and with no up-front fees, you are not alone. Because of the extensive activity of clandestine marketing companies to rip-off thousands of dollars from inventors while providing little in the way of valuable service, there has been an mainstream movement to caution inventors about these rip-off organizations and in the process, advise inventors to never pay up-front fees. This is done in order to help protect inventors from being ripped off. This is certainly a noble cause, however, many times the scam organizations operate in nearly an identical form to legitimate invention brokerage companies and it is hard to tell the difference. The book, The Inventor's Bible, goes into extensive detail about how to recognize prudent and valuable services and to distinguish them from rip-off organizations. Michael Neustel, a patent attorney from North Dakota, has a website dedicated to this and a link to this site is found in "Other Resources". The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Office of Independent Inventors, is dedicated to helping inventors avoid scam organizations, as well. FREE ADVICE In some circumstances, it may be entirely possible for you to do the work yourself to successfully commercialize your invention. The Inventor's Bible is a comprehensive, step-by-step guide that takes you through the steps you need to potentially commercialize your invention. Here is a brief summary. For FREE, you can investigate the retail market for your invention, interview store clerks to see what the consumers are currently doing to solve the problem that your invention addresses. These clerks can point you toward distributors and manufacture reps in your industry. For FREE, you can learn about these channels of distribution and the names and contact information for potential licensees through your interviews with these people. For FREE, you can (for the price of a phone call), contact distributors and manufacture reps to learn more about which manufacturing companies would be most appropriate to approach and for whom you may potentially submit your invention. For FREE, you can order annual reports, catalogues and information about the manufacturing companies to learn more about them. For FREE, you can contact the manufacturing companies directly on your own and learn their procedure for submitting new products and ideas to them. For FREE (and the cost of a few copies of paper), you can submit your invention to corporations and manufacturers for their review and evaluation. For FREE, you can field offers from companies and decide which ones you want to be dealing with. For FREE, you can collect cash payments, royalties and bask in the sun on your own tropical island. And, if you are one of the one or two percent or so of the lucky inventors who ever had this happen, this could be your dream come true. However, it normally does not happen this way and usually the business of marketing and licensing inventions requires a bit of expertise, experience and luck. There are only a few commission-only based services for inventors and even less have been around for over two years. Most commission-based services with any kind of track record charge the inventor 33 to 60 cents on the dollar for every dollar the inventor makes. If you are comfortable with a 33% to 60% commission rate, then there are a few choices for you. The problem is that no one stands out as successful over time, except one company in New England and it is very highly selective. Docie Development offers a commission-based service and it too is very selective about the projects it undertakes, although it will consider a vast array of different types of projects. The bottom line is that unless you do all the footwork, market research, investigation, and communication on your own, it is going to cost you something. Either you will have to pay substantial commissions to a brokerage company, or you will have to pay a fee of some sort to help offset the expenses of the marketing company. Docie Marketing offers several alternatives in this regard. Please refer to "SERVICES" for more information. | |