Dun & Bradstreet (selectory.com) is a good source to search for companies, as you can really narrow down your industry based (and other) criteria. They offer a free 7 day “functional enough” trial, as long as you haven’t used yours up. From here you can check the website of companies you turn up, and should hopefully be able to use your own judgement regarding which would make the best fit.

Reference USA isn’t as useful as D&B, but is quite possibly more useful than sites like Thomas Net and Hoovers and you may be able to get free remote access through your local library. Another tool you might be able to use is simply Google’s product search…

In terms of what companies will make the best fit, its probably possible to give good advice here but not without specifics (and possibly a certain amount of research).

Also, something I probably should have noted initially…I am not 100% sure whether you are looking for a licensee or simply a manufacturer…

Do note the limitations of your design patent (if you don’t already). Even if you are worried about keeping up with demand, I might worry about establishing a customer base and/or brand name here before I would worry about finding a licensee, if you are open to that in some capacity. With only your design patent, it does not sound as if you could possibly have that much to offer for a licensee, and I imagine it would help if you could a.) show evidence of market demand, and b.) have something else, i.e. a domain name and/or established brand name, to offer a prospective licensee.

Perhaps you should be looking simply for a contract manufacturer for the time being, and if you pick one that does business with some of the bigger names in the industry, perhaps you can use them for an introduction or two when you get to a point where you feel comfortable licensing your patent (or selling your business, etc).

Excellent advice, CD.

have you tried globalsources.com, you could find plastic manufacturers and actually send request to all or as many as you like to get prices. another source is getafreelancer.com and elance.com where you could put it out for bid and have people bid on producing for you. these are a few options. Is this an item which could be made by injection molding, if so there are numerous companies out there, however the molds can be expensive. you most certainly need to narrow down in the thomas register to the type of manufacturer you are looking for. Other options would be to start a business around the product and see if you could obtain equipment to produce, though this may be a very expensive proposition, but not impossible if the product is going to sell. there are other sources but I cant think the names offhand and am at work, have them at home will try to find them as I am looking for manufacturers for a furniture product I designed for a customer.

one other I had found but not sure if they could help is http://www.ides.com/manufacturers/default.htm.

Scott,

Have you checked out the mfg.com website. Their site allows you to put your product out for bid. You can set up a detailed criteria for a search and only the people who meet the specifications that you establish will respond. You make the final decision who to go with. Also the manufacturer pays to belong to mfg.com so it doesn’t cost you anything to find the the best match to make your product.

Wow, this is a great resourse for inventers. Thanks for all the input. Yes, it could be injection molded (that is kind of my plan at this point if I don’t find someone interested in it) and I know there is a customer base for it, I have several hundred (I know thats not a lot but for the effort I have put into selling them I think its a good start) out in my rural area and this is all just word of mouth and people seeing them and wanting them. It started when made some out of metal for my brother that does catering and people started chasing me down wanting some as well. I kept telling people no but this thing took on a life of its own and I made my own vacuum form mold and started making them out of plastic myself. I am suprised at how well they turned out but they are kind of labor intensive so the price is $10 each. I have a web site at drinkbib.com that has a link to pictures of them if anyone is interested in seeing what they look like. Not the greatest pictures but you can get the idea.

thanks again for the input.
Scott

I couldn’tget to the web site you gave but did a search and found one. not a bad idea, how about stamping it from metal, might be cheaper than injection molding at least to start as molds for injection molding can be very high unless you plan on selling thousands of them. you may want to source to china though you may find more competitive pricing, globalsource.com would be the place to get bids for it. or you may contact the plastic manufacturers about licensing. May depend on how many you may sell as to which way would be most profitable. If you could have them manufactured for you and sell yourself might be the most profitable but would likely carry higher up front cost, which means if they don’t sell you could end up losing out big.

Scott,

I looked at your site and like the idea. I think injection molding is a poor process choice for it though. An injection mold for a part that size and thinness would be impractically expensive ($25,000+). The process you are using (vacuum forming) is possibly the best choice. Another option is blow-molding. There are manufacturers that mass-produce with those processes. You might consider looking for them instead of an injection molder. I think you will get less expensive parts and spend thousands less on tooling. Talk to companies that make transparent plastic packaging.