TigerTamer

I need world bicycle market share data. (who is buying it, who is making it) Can anyone help out? Does anyone know a website, an information source that is free?

I'm a poor student on a budget, so I can't afford these $4000 reports all my web searches come up with. (I mean, already I've started eating less salmon, switching to cheaper foods like baloney sandwiches. I'm still resisting hot dogs though (and still making child support payments) - partly thanks to riding my bike to school in winter and saving on public transit.)
OK, (unfortunately realistic) humor aside...

I need world bicycle market data - I mean, the size of the market by country, market share, where our exports are going to, where our imports are coming from (WHO IN THE WORLD IS MAKING IT, WHO IN THE WORLD IS BUYING IT). Can anyone help out? Does anyone know a website, an information source that is free?
The reason is that I have some inventions I want to patent, but I don't think I can afford a worldwide patent - I'll never raise that much dough. The patenting process allows me to apply, and gives me up to 2 years to pay it all up or substract unneeded countries following marketing research, but it's still steep for me.

If anyone would like to step forward and help me, please email multi_timm@yahoo.ca

THANKS!!!!
And best wishes to all of you for 2005!!!

woof

Yeah, I know all that stuff but I can't let it go for less than $3750.

55/Rad

First off, if the information is free, chances are it's inaccurate, overgeneralized or outdated. Companies and individuals spend big chunks of change to compile market research in order to give them and their partners a leg up in the marketplace. The last thing they want to do is make their most current information available to the general public or their competitors.

As for the patent process, if you apply, you can then shop the licensing to manufacturers to help fund the process. Hopefully, whatever you have invented can't be easily tweaked in such a way that another company could, in all respects, steal the patent.

55/Rad

Turbonium

No ePatents!

..oops wrong patent.

but heres a link that can help you as a template of the steps to go through. i saw some links to other country patents sites. hope that helps :S

browngum

Gday from Sydney Australia. I am off to a conference in Adelaide titled on two wheels. The Australian Bicycle Council is currently trying to urge retailers to provide data. Current data is mainly from customs on those bikes imported.

I will try to get some info and get back to you

browngum

Dahon.Steve

You'll never find this information for free.

There are LOADS of companies that will do a patent for a fee. These are all SCAMS who are just looking for your money. A patent application is cheap and worthless. There are thousands of products that get patented but never make it to the market and yours will probably be one of them. If you can't afford a patent, then getting the product to the market is a dream. Contrary to popular belief, there are not thousands of manufacturers willing to spend money in producing your product.

Why is a patent worthless? Because you still have to defend it with lawyers even if someone violates it! As a startup, you don't have the cash to do this. Do you have the time and money (tens of thousands) to pay lawyers when knock-off products show up? I didn't think so. File a cheap patent and worry later if the competition shows up. If you want my opinion, I doubt other companies will show up because that means you'll highly successful. This is a very, very rare occurance in the business world especially with new products.

In the event you are successful, the competition will come cruising regardless to whatever patents you're holding. I highly doubt you have something so unique the cycling world has never seen but here the problem with this thinking:

Educating the public is expensive -- If your product is so unique, the cost of promoting this device will be in the tens of thousands! There are countless new products each year looking for a market with no success.

Find the market first, then build the product ---- You did it the other way around by building the product first then trying to find the market. This is a very poor strategy because you'll force the "numbers" in your research to boast your confidence. The results can be disasterous.

If you want to increase your chances in business, find a large market and sell them a "SERVICE" with high quality. It's incredibly difficult to become a manufacturer in this country. New products require large start up capital and tend to have short shelf life.

Why not sell hamburgers? I know a guy that started a hamburger shop in New York City and it raking in loads of money! How much money is McDonalds making selling hamburgers? Billions.

Roody

Big blue letters. Scary.

Briggo4189

I've only just joined the site so sorry if this is a bit late but you need to look at www.bikebiz.co.uk.
There is world wide data here - not just for the UK.

Don't be put off by the negative, know it all answers which you've had - if everyone thought like that we would still be living in candle lit caves and walking everywhere. Good Luck whatever your ideas are.

UmneyDurak

Couldn't agree more.

royalflash

make sure you file the patent before disclosing the idea to anyone and that includes potential investors. Once you have filed you potentially have some rights to the invention and more bargaining power. Once you have filed then you need to move quickly in assessing the commercial potential of your idea. Accordng to the Paris convention you have one year from the initial filing to file further patents claiming priority from the initial filing. It is then too late to file further patents for the same idea. So the maximum territorial exent of your protction for the original idea is fixed at the one year point (though you can further restrict it as you notein your post). Filing a patent is relatively cheap but be warned that the fees rise steeply after that and you had better have deep pockets if you want to obtain granted patents and pay the renewal fees after that (which increase year on year). Professional fees for a lawyer are even higher higher but you will probably need one as private applicants rarely obtain a patent worth having.

As Dahon Steve as pointed out just getting a patent is the beginning of the problems. Defending a patent can cost millions. Patenting is a tricky expensive business and is largely the doman of large multinationals with huge r & D budgets and legal departments.

So make sure the patent is REALLY worth it before going ahead after filing.

It is possible to become a millionaire as a private inventor with good patent(s) but the odds are very much stacked against you.

tekhna

Did anyone else happen to notice the original post is over a year old?
Why even bother?

woof

[QUOTE=TigerTamer][COLOR=Navy][SIZE=3][B] (who is buying it,
North American, European and Australian white people
who is making it)
The Chinese