this post was submitted on 25 Nov 2023
1 points (100.0% liked)
Entrepreneur
0 readers
1 users here now
Rules
- No Personal Attacks - criticism of ideas is allowed, attacking people is not.
- Self Posts Only - links can only provide supplementary material. Your post must contain enough content to have a discussion.
- No “How To Get Rich Quick” posts - This community is not about making a quick buck. Posts asking the community how to make $X, without making specific reference to a reasonable idea, are not tolerated.
- Avoid unprofessional communication - Please treat fellow entrepreneurs like respected coworkers, label conversations if NSFW and avoid deliberate provocations.
Please feel free to provide evidence-based best practices, share a micro-victory, discuss strategy and concepts with a frame work, ask for feedback, and create professional conversation. Treat every post as if you're at work and representing the best version of yourself.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
How new and novel is your product? If it is new and untested, no one will really want to knockoff your product. The concern comes if / when your product generates big traction. At this point, there is a concern that the factories would begin selling it on the side or other factories may knockoff.
However, the biggest concern (in my opinion) is your legitimate domestic competitors knocking it off once they see your product is successful. Much larger companies will be able to replicate your product avoiding your patent, or even if they explicitly infringe on your patent, it is very difficult and costly for a smaller organization to defend this with direct legal action.
To protect IP within the factory and factories country, there are a few ways to minimize this risk. You can partner with a smaller factory where you are a larger customer to them so they have less incentive to knockoff the product and damage your relationship. When you start out, you will not have this size and leverage, but you can partner with an intermediate sourcing / contract manufacturing company that has this sort of relationship with their suppliers. Side bonus they will likely take care of things such as negotiation, quality, import/export, logistics for you.
Another option that can be paired with the previous is to work with your factory to have them sell it on the side. If you have reached the success with your product where it will become likely this gets knocked off. You can offer a licensing deal with your factory to manufacture and sell your product within their country where you take some sort of fee.