I have a Chinese American friend who runs manufacturing for five companies including mine. Makes sure everything is non toxic and over sees quality control. Regarding patents the Chinese do not honor patents according to my friend but they do honor non-disclosure no compete agreement contracts. The other alternative is to have different parts of your product manufactured in different factories and assemble in US.
My friend spends four months in China and three weeks in the US as a schedule. Four of his companies are multi-million dollar but he took the time to set up mine and kept at it until the quality and materials met my expectations.

I have a similar product (not knowing what you have) that you can google “pegstrappers”. Only disclose “patent pending”, no other information needs to be shared. As the manufacturer they’re no more entitled to the details than anyone else is. Present a blueprint establishing the specs that the part is to be made to and have it quoted. If it doesn’t meet the specs, you are not obligated to pay for it. The manufacturer will quote it based on the fact that they can meet or surpass to get customer satisfaction and a returning customer.

My parts, when I had it quoted, ranged from “no-quote” to 10 cents to 42 cents a piece. Today I manufacture with my own tooling for 5 cents a piece. If I go national, I’ll get serious about cost reduction. somewhere to the tune of .05 cents (or less), meaning 20 will cost me a penny. the investment to get that low of price is pretty hefty, but I’ve already sold about 30,000. I figure national distribution would require that I make about 1,000,000 for the first year.

So when you say anyone can make it, look at short term and long term, tooling, lifespan of tooling, distribution, packaging, handling… there are a lot of ways to skin a cat and the tool determines how effiently it can be done.

the only thing as an inventor i worry about is the fact that all someone over seas is change the invention just a bit and they just became the new owner… a friend told me that the international copyright laws, basically taking your blood , sweat , tears idea and making it their own is not as law breaking as it would be here… so be prepared for a version of yours to be released if your idea is hot seller….

Thank you for your reply Jane. I will look into International Patents.

Also, my idea is too cheap and simple to submit. It’s the perfect stepping stone for a young entrepreneur like myself, so I want to see it to fruition, if not for the money then for the experience.

Hello kashogi,

I am by far not an expert on the subject, but I was listening to an EN video, I think that it was the one by the USPTO Director, and it had said that many times inventors don’t pay attention to international patent protection. I think one way to help you would be to call in to the USPTO and ask them how to protect your idea/product internationally. Especially before you discuss with someone who could potentially knock off your product.

Also, I don’t know if you would be willing to submit your idea here on EN, as they are having both a Search for Medical related products and also a Search for Technology related products. You may have to split your profits, but if your idea is accepted at Level 8, I do think that from what I have been reading, EN will do all they can to protect the idea/product even internationally.

I would suggest, only in my novice opinion, to get more input on how to protect your idea, but maybe there will be other comments on En to your question that will have other perspectives that are helpful.