University project-need painters input on new product

Thanks for your help!

I don't paint enough to take your survey, but I do find "other" in question 13 interesting, anyone else??

From a survey design standpoint, this is a bit crude. You should have used at least a Likert scale if not a 10 point scale. Multiple response options would have helped too.

Good luck with your project. Come back and let us know.

another diy piece of junk, good luck, you'll probably make millions, but not from any real painters:rofl:

Being an amateur inventor myself I have often went to forums to educate myself and sometimes even ask for advice. I know this is part of a school project and the likelihood that it will ever make it to market is slim. In a real world scenario you would want to seek patent protection and asking for advice and feedback could harm you down the road. These forums are open publicly and announcing an invention has legal consequences and if others offer advice and it evolves into your design they could have rights to that part of your invention even.

That said here is what I like and don’t like about your design. Assuming a full can of paint. The brush hanger will hold the brush down in the paint way too far. The idea of it having the ability to open a can is ok but it will be a mess when you want to open a second can. Nothing will replace the “church key” type opener. Wiping the brush on the round rod is nice except when the can is full and that could be hard to do without dipping in the paint again. Assuming the can is mostly empty I see it getting paint on my hand trying to get to the bottom of the bucket. Then I have one more thing to clean that I won’t so I will end up tossing it out.

Most painters don’t paint out of the can the paint comes in and use a paint bucket they don’t fill that full. If I wanted to design something I might add a bar like yours to a painters bucket built in. they may already have that I think I have seen it before.

Having done my own patent searches many times I have a feel for what I will find and it’s pretty hard to find these type of things that haven’t already been patented. And if they have and yours is just enough different you may have a very narrow claim to patent. That opens the doors to others to copy by slightly altering your design. Your school would do well to have a follow up to projects like these with the legal side of invention.

For a few bucks you can do a statutory invention registration so that when a sociopath company CEO steals your invention and patents it, at least he can't sue you for infringement.

Some people think getting a patent is just a money sink and if you're going to make less than $12M/year you shouldn't do it.

In the fight over who invented intermittent windshield wipers each side had about half a dozen lawyers, IIRC.

chrisn said:

another diy piece of junk, good luck, you'll probably make millions, but not from any real painters:rofl:

Click to expand...

Agreed. Just another gimmick.