Does Your Product Need an Update?

In the business world, stagnation is never good. Customers want — and expect — improvement. If your product remains static without any changes or upgrades, chances are someone will eventually come up with something better, and your customers will make the switch from you to that better option. Remember, it’s not just about creating a great product; it’s about constantly improving a great product. The best products progress, evolve, and improve to meet ever-changing consumer preferences and demands.

Product Upgrade Guidelines

With that being said, product upgrades certainly aren’t always easy for a business to execute. So when you’re updating your product, be sure to keep the following tips in mind.

Always update based on consumer feedback

Arbitrary updates are never a good idea. All product updates should be based on consumer feedback. That is why it is absolutely essential to cultivate and maintain open channels of communication with consumers. If you can’t communicate with your target customer base, you will never know what customers are thinking.

Prioritize

Once you’ve determined which improvements or enhancements your customers are looking for, you need to prioritize their requests. Of course, this is easier said than done. You can’t expect all of your customers to unanimously agree on an update — while some customers might demand a specific feature and enhancement, others might simply not see the necessity. So, how should you go about prioritizing customers’ conflicting wants and needs? In general, it is a good idea to pay attention to return on investment (ROI). For example, before you drop $3,000 on a new feature for your widget, you need to realistically analyze how many new customers such an improvement would help you attract or keep. The greater the number of customers you can retain or attract, the greater the ROI and the higher priority the update.

Streamline upgrade production

Once you’ve identified a change or enhancement that needs to made and have developed an upgrade plan, you need to work to ensure the entire process is streamlined. This means making sure that all parties involved — engineering teams, designers, tech people, etc. — are all on the same page. Effective communication and project management is the key to smooth and timely upgrades.

Work to facilitate a smooth rollout

Make sure customers can easily upgrade your product to the newest version. Also, keep in mind that while you might be tempted to make an elaborate announcement, typically a low-key rollout is your best option for a product upgrade.

Pivot International is a product design, development, and manufacturing firm with extensive experience in the medtech industry. If you are interested in engineering a new product or updating an existing product, contact us at 1-877-206-5001 or request your free consultation today.

How to Test the Integrity of Product Data Management Tools

The managing of product data used to be a bit of a headache, considering information was retained by the design office, and other data and specification fell in the hands of the purchasing department, or even sales and marketing. If you wanted to get the whole picture on a product, you needed to tour the company to do it, and if you wanted relevant data such as production costs, you had to work it out the hard way.

Product Data Management Software Changed Operations

The arrival of Computer Aided Design (CAD) software in offices promised increased productivity and accuracy, but came with its own issues too, mainly in document control. While drafting and design was a wholly mechanical process, documents were fairly easy to control. If you went to fetch a file from the drawing repository and it wasn’t there, the chances were that it was being worked on by someone else. Because the drawing itself was a physical entity, spurious copies couldn’t be made of them. But the advent of CAD and electronic drawings opened up the possibility of multiple copies being in existence, and possibly being worked on by different people doing different updates.

Along with all its positive attributes, CAD had also brought along the possibility of confusion and delay. The major CAD programmers understood this problem and listened to their customers. Companies wanted efficient document control along with their modeling capabilities and Product Data Management (PDM) became a part of the whole program.

Solidworks – the CAD program designed by Dassault Systems, was one of the first PDM systems to come into existence. The Solidworks program is a Parasolid-based solid modeler and high-end CAD that utilizes a parametric feature-based approach to create models and assemblies. It had a fast 3D modelling package and was quickly adopted by many companies that were keen to use its simple but effective interface. It also featured a file handling and control add-on called ENOVIA, and it was this that required a document to be checked out of a central vault before it could be altered, and checked back in before anyone else could access it. Document control was absolute and the system was hailed as the complete solution to design and drafting control. PDM systems are now the obvious choice when considering Engineering Change control, as they handle the metadata associated with this type of change – such as file owner, and current status – with ease.

PDM is often characterized as the use of specific software to track and control data related to a product. The data being recorded usually relates to technical specifications, manufacturing processes, specific materials, and development records. PDM data allows a company to track many different aspects of the design — including the costs associated with its manufacture. This is invaluable information to have in real time, and can help a company retain a cost edge over competitors. PDM has a number of positive aspects that make it a system that benefits knowledge management and regular product reporting.

Benefits of PDM Systems

PDM systems allow engineers, buyers, QA, and marketing people to:

• Find and correlate data quickly
• Reduce cycle time and improve productivity
• Comply with regulatory requirements
• Globally collaborate on projects

PDM is fast becoming a business must-have. With its mix of document control and product planning capabilities, PDM is a system that simplifies data handling. Many systems come as standard with a CAD package and is easy to integrate into a company’s production system and procedures. It also works well regardless of company size so there is little reason not to embrace it. The drawing boards of yesteryear have all but gone and the outdated control systems that accompanied them are following suit.

Pivot International is a product design, development, and manufacturing firm with extensive experience in the medtech industry. If you are interested in engineering a new product or updating an existing product, contact us at 1-877-206-5001 or request your free consultation today.

The Importance of Product Prototyping – Everything You Need to Know

As engineers, it’s very easy to fall into the trap of thinking that the quality department is simply there to spoil the fun, or to make the process overly long and complicated. In reality, quality is central to everything your company does, and is the driving force behind customer satisfaction by both striving to deliver goods to a standard that the customer expects, and then measuring it and feeding back.

Everything You Need to Know about Product Prototyping

Quality puts a structure in place that will only allow goods that are fit for use to be delivered, and constantly strives to make the process better. Quality is there to make sure that our production processes do not allow sub-standard goods to leave the building, but does that mean that quality cannot also have a role in the fast-moving and fluid world of prototyping?

Product Prototyping is the act of creating a first product or representation of a product for a demonstration, initial test, or for marketing purposes. By its very nature, prototyping tends to use non-production machinery and employs the skills of technicians or engineers rather than the usual production staff. These are people who are trained to use non-production machinery and have the skills to create complex products using a range of equipment. This would seem to be a completely alien environment for quality as it loses much of the structure that is so important for consistency, but there is still good work that the quality department can do in a prototyping workshop, and to not include them could make your prototyping exercise longer.

One of the quality department’s many functions is to oversee the inspection of goods at stages in production and possibly even a final sign-off. Much of this inspection can be carried out as a visual overview, but there may be occasion to actually take and record measurements. Coordinate Measuring Machines – known as CMM equipment – are a highly specialized and extremely accurate means of measuring both features and the relative positions between them. This kind of equipment is invaluable when producing a first-off example of a new product and can be used to map and characterize the prototype and ensure that it conforms to the required standards. That can mean in terms of physical dimensions or other tested and compared properties and how they might relate to the fully productionised model.

A prototype is generally a precursor to gearing up from a concept item to production, and represents making a saleable item. But production and manufacturing
is a different beast from technician-driven prototyping work, and the generation of documentation for production purposes at this early stage is another field where the quality department needs to be involved. Whether it is work instructions, procedures, or results correlation, the documentation required for the manufacture of a new product will have to fit within your quality system, which means that all new documents will need to be logged on the system, subject to maintenance and updated as required. Creating a paperwork for a new product can be a daunting task, and the sooner it is started, the more successful it will be in the crucial early stages of the product. Not only does it mean that documentation is ready to use by the time that the device is ready for full scale production, but any problems with it will have been ironed out too.

Product Prototyping is a Team Process

But suppose, having made your prototype, you come up against problems and issues that you hadn’t envisaged, and are struggling to overcome? Once again, the quality department can help here too, with their problem-solving capabilities. Almost all quality engineers and managers today are familiar with standard problem-solving techniques such as Six Sigma and 8D to help understand and regularly apply these methods to problems found in production. These tools are extremely flexible and many can be applied to pre-production as well. Six Sigma is primarily aimed at production with a view to instigating product improvement, but some features such as the FMEA can be applied to pre-production with ease. By having quality professionals on your prototype team, you will have an enormous advantage in getting it right the first time.

Quality teams are often maligned for being overly cautious and for not usually taking chances, but by using the quality mindset at the earliest stages of your project, you reduce the risk of problems occurring, and ultimately reduce your time to market.

Pivot International is a product design, development, and manufacturing firm with extensive experience in the medtech industry. If you are interested in engineering a new product or updating an existing product, contact us at 1-877-206-5001 or request your free consultation today.

The Benefits of Biometric Identification Security System

In today’s technology-driven society, a slew of logins and passwords are responsible for protecting our computers, email accounts, bank accounts, debit cards, social media, office locations, homes, and much more.

Biometric Identification Security System Infographic

Although we may encrypt passwords and develop security barriers that make it difficult for hackers, intruders, and other enemies to access our information, these tools can only go so far. However, biometric security systems that protect information using DNA, fingerprints, irises, and facial recognition technology can make it nearly impossible for criminals to access our most private data. Take a look at the many advantages of using a biometric security system.

Here’s Why Regulatory Compliance is Important

Look closely at a product and you are likely to see the legends FCC and CE stated on a label or even molded into its plastic casing. These two notifications state that the product complies with the directives of certain government bodies and is an assurance that the product is safe to use. The process of applying these marks to a product demonstrates to a customer that the product is within regulatory compliance.

The importance of Regulatory Compliance

FCC is the mark of the American Federal Communications Commission, whereas CE refers to “Communauté Européenne,” which is French for European Community. These marks do similar things within their communities and are recognized worldwide as standards of excellence.

While the FCC mark is associated specifically with wireless communications and the equipment used for it, the CE mark is even more far reaching and covers all kinds of physical characteristics of the product. This allows the customer to be confident in knowing that the product is safe to use.

Regulatory Compliance Laws

Regulatory compliance is an organization’s adherence to laws, regulations, guidelines, and specifications relevant to its business. The laws may be local or international, and may cover a vast array of compliancy issues. Violations of regulatory compliance can very often result in severe legal punishments, including fines or withdrawal of the product from the marketplace. Regulatory compliance gives your customers the confidence they need when purchasing equipment, and demonstrates that other equipment will function correctly in its presence. To not have such strict enforcement in place lays open the possibility of different pieces of electronic equipment interfering with other transmission or reception. Other internationally agreed standards such as RoHS and WEEE fall into the category of regulatory compliance. These two pieces of legislation in particular deal with how electronic components are constructed. To not comply with these would be a huge deficit to your product.

Regulatory Compliance is Broad

But regulatory compliance goes much further than simple functionality of equipment, and the term can also cover business systems, IT, environmental legislation, health and safety, and other aspects of business and commerce. The term can cover any officially sanctioned laws or edits covering a country, area of origin, or territory into which goods or services may be sold or used. Quality systems are now an important part of many businesses, and it is increasingly likely that your customers prefer to deal with a company that has an accredited quality system. This is where internationally-recognized standards such as ISO 9000 come into play, and the total number of companies that don’t operate under its umbrella are dwindling. Similarly, ISO 14001 demonstrates a company’s dedication to international environmental legislation, but also state that your company will comply with local environmental legislation where you sell your products. It is that kind of attention to detail that can mean the difference between gaining a sale or not.

Regulatory compliance is a huge subject, and with so many different aspects, it is a legal minefield that requires a professional to safely and fully navigate. Many of the standards that need putting in place and maintaining are expensive and complex, and require people skilled in their operation to install them. But with the necessary legislation in place and fully working, your company will be able to operate on a global level.

Pivot International is a product design, development, and manufacturing firm with strengths in software development, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, and industrial design. If you are interested in engineering a new product or updating an existing product, contact us at 1-877-206-5001 or request your free consultation today.

Swap, Record & Store Information with Ease

In the past, gathering data from a source always meant physical connectivity and analysis of the gather data generally required the skills of someone with expert knowledge to interpret what was being shown. When you put these two factors together, data capture and use becomes an expensive, time-consuming process, and areas of concern become instantly recognizable. But all of this is currently changing with the availability of wireless communications — which allows linked devices to swap, record, and store information, and display it as it is gathered.

Machine to Machine (M2M) technology is a system in which information is passed between connected machines. M2M systems may be wired and permanently attached, but it is far more usual for modern systems to utilize wireless technology — enabling a system to run free while being monitored.

Fifteen years ago, the concept of M2M would have seemed like science fiction to most, but today, it’s an essential part of machine maintenance and diagnostics. Made possible by radio-frequency technology, M2M communications helps keep track of numerous products and devices. Furthermore, systems have evolved beyond the one-to-one communications that were originally devised to become multi-connection entities. Originally devised for telemetry, industrial automation, and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems, M2M has far exceeded the original intent and can now be found on items such as domestic appliances to office IT networks. The applications for M2M are almost boundless.

M2M connectivity is now becoming even more prevalent in medicine, medical devices and monitors that feature vital signs are now able to read data being sent from a patient via Bluetooth. The concept has also been extended so that a series of sensors embedded in a patient or on their skin can collect and send data to a local receiver, which in turn can connect to a master system at a hospital via the Internet. Suddenly, a hospital can monitor the progress or daily condition of a patient from anywhere in the world. It is this kind of system that is routinely used to collect and monitor real-time data from astronauts either in flight or located on extra-terrestrial platforms such as the International Space Station. With data acquisition units becoming ever smaller, the possibility to lodge data-gathering equipment directly in the body as a long-term solution is becoming ever more likely.

However, the everyday familiarity of M2M technology takes away much of the true wonder and flexibility of these systems, and it is in extreme applications where the worth of the technology really comes to the forefront. Imagine a system where, once deployed, routine maintenance becomes either impossible or so prohibitively expensive or dangerous that it is effectively impossible. This is the case with satellite systems and deep sea applications, which is equipment designed to perform for extended periods of time in hostile environments. The operators behind these complex systems must collect and correlate data on many different aspects of the overall device — as well as monitor the actual data that is being returned. By examining the system information and verifying that it is working within optimum limits, it is possible to determine whether the device is likely to fail, and be in a position to prevent it from doing so. M2M makes seemingly impossible tasks into those that can be made possible by allowing detailed analysis in real time, and by allowing engineers and supervisors to intervene as required based on the feedback they are getting.

But M2M capabilities have progressed further still, and the protocol is the mainstay of connecting everyday devices to local networks and the Internet. Mobile devices such as phones and tablet computers rely on M2M capability to make them as versatile as they are, allowing them to switch between transmit and receive stations seamlessly. Whether it’s data acquisition from a racing car or satellite, information exchange over a wireless network, or simple control mechanisms, M2M can deal with it.

Pivot International is a product design, development, and manufacturing firm with strengths in software development, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, and industrial design. If you are interested in engineering a new product or updating an existing product, contact us at 1-877-206-5001 or request your free consultation today.

Radio Frequency Identification Makes Light Work of Inventory

Keeping control of stock and products within an organization used to be a laborious task of booking on a computer, placing in a known area, and ensuring that the same product was booked off when sold or used.

Everything needed to be accounted for by its existence on a computer system, and if that stock went missing, or was incorrectly logged into the system, then disarray would eschew. Days, and sometimes weeks of company time would be spent periodically checking stock against the computer system and altering the available stock as appropriate to ensure that a company actually had what it thought it did. Failure to do that would mean to risk not being able to fulfill received orders as stock depleted between checks, or would result in carrying too much stock and having assets tied up unnecessarily.

When Radio Frequency Identification became available, the world’s stock takers held their breath; was this something that might take all of the pain out of endless counting and checking? Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) has become one of the most efficient ways of tracking stock and goods. With its roots dating back to post-second World War espionage, RFID has evolved over the years from being a passive radio transponder technique with added memory to being incorporated into modern devices that use radio frequencies to transmit data. An RFID system uses RFID tags that transmit data which are attached to the objects or products to be identified. In turn, two-way radio transmitter-receivers called interrogators or readers send a signal to the tag and read its response. Modern devices can be as small as a single grain of rice and can be discreetly inserted in packaging or within the bulk of a device being monitored so that the its presence can realistically be noted by a radio frequency RFID reader device that is tuned to a specific set frequency.

Because the components that are essential for an RFID device to work are now routinely available in miniaturized and cost-effective form, placing sensors in large amounts or even in throw-away items such as product packaging has become viable. This means that RFID becomes the technology of choice, since it offers many advantages over simple stock-taking and inventory-control devices such as barcodes and serial number scanners.

RFID is generally used in an increasing number of commercial applications such as asset management and inventory tracking, and even finds its way into government-issued documentation such as biometric passports.

One of the growing areas of interest in RFID is in the identification and tracking of live subjects. The system is already being widely introduced into both domestic and agricultural animals with the so-called “chipping” of pets being a routine process that can be used to identify lost or stolen animals within seconds. Following a number of food-chain related scares, it is becoming standard practice to introduce RFID tags to animals destined for human consumption to ensure that only prime meat is used. This has become a major issue in Europe with recent concerns over lower-grade meats and horsemeats entering the food chain, and to prevent other diseases such as Mad Cow Disease from gaining a foothold.

Advancements in Miniaturization

Recent advances in miniaturization have opened up the possibility of routine human identification via RFID, though this has also opened up a debate on personal privacy and the possibility of abuse of such systems by the government. There have also been claims that it is possible to hack into and alter the tag on human systems, which could result in confusion concerning identification.

RFID is a growing market and one which will fit a growing number of new applications, though there are concerns about data flooding as more and more devices come into existence. While hacking has yet to be proven, manipulation of systems by outsiders could become a serious issue. For the moment, it makes the transfer of stock a safe and reliable process that can only be good for all industries.

Pivot International is a product design, development, and manufacturing firm with strengths in software development, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, and industrial design. If you are interested in engineering a new product or updating an existing product, contact us at 1-877-206-5001 or request your free consultation today.

Creating Products in Half the Time

Product development can sometimes be a long-winded and expensive process. Creating something from principles or an initial idea means going through a series of phases such as design, validation, and verification before you can get the product out and on the market.

How to Create Products Fast

If you could develop products in a much reduced time, you could not only recoup a lot of those costs earlier on, but also potentially get twice as many new products at the same time. But how do you shorten the product lifecycle effectively? How can you get product to market more quickly? If you follow a few simple rules and organize your product development teams effectively, shortening product development becomes second nature.

1. Make your process flexible

Most large companies operate a stage gate process for new product development and only allow new designs to proceed once they have met very well-defined criteria. This is an important process, as it ensures that only designs that are successful will make it to market. Imagine if the qualifying team of directors and vice presidents only met once per month. If the work on a product had been completed within the first few days of a month, your team may not be working on it while waiting for the next management meeting. It is in the best interest of senior management to introduce new product to the market, so convincing committee members to meet on an ad-hoc basis or whenever your team is ready to approach the next gate will shorten time to market considerably.

2. Employ multi-skilled team members

It’s Friday evening and you have just learned that the electronics test technician you want to carry out a series of tests on your new product is just starting two weeks’ vacation. How are you going to get your testing done? Waiting two weeks before you can get your testing started will add time to your development, and it won’t take many delays like that to add up significantly. Nobody is irreplaceable, and having someone else who can do the work required means that there is no delay and your product design can move forward smoothly. This same rule can apply to any function — from design to accounts to testing. Remove the single point of failure in your team and watch it flow.

3. Embrace the fuzzy front end

Many product development teams start at one end and go through a series of steps in a linear fashion until the project is finished. Starting at point A, moving to point B, then on to point C is a straightforward but slow way of doing things. Considering multiple start points and a non-linear approach will shorten your development time significantly. A product that has both mechanical and electrical assemblies within it would be inconceivable to complete one part of the project before starting the other. To wait until all the mechanical design is done before starting the electrical design may end up being long-winded. Other parts of the project can be started at the same time to shorten the overall project time. This method is called the “fuzzy front-end”, and suggests that the start of the project progresses from many start points rather than in a strictly linear fashion. Working out which parts can commence at the same time will decrease your project timescales — and potential costs — substantially.

4. Control complexity

Innovation is an important aspect of new products, and people often want to see new and useful products or features, However, this can be a double-edged sword, as innovation invariably means development costs and extended timescales to market. Limiting innovation on a new product will allow you to get to market faster and will provide you with the option of introducing further advances on future product. That is not to say that you shouldn’t protect your new features with the appropriate intellectual property safeguards, but review it all and decide on what can be left off until the next iteration or new product launch, and expose yourself to fewer problems.

Pivot International is a product design, development, and manufacturing firm with strengths in software development, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, and industrial design. If you are interested in engineering a new product or updating an existing product, contact us at 1-877-206-5001 or request your free consultation today.

Top 3 Strategies to Fund Your New Product Idea

The vast majority of new products and devices hitting the market today are designed within company structures and are funded from within the business. But for very small companies or lone inventors, funding can be a real issue.

Those who don’t have the cash flow to spend on product development may be able to obtain funding from somewhere outside the company. But that is the start of a financial nightmare for many small inventors; it marks the onset of meetings with people who will only part with potentially large amounts of money to help you finance your product to full production. In return for their investment, those who bankroll you hope that your device will sell sufficiently to give them a large return on their money.

The obvious place to seek funding is at a bank, but mainstream banks are now far more cautious to whom they lend money and for what reasons. Mortgages – always seen as a sure bet — are becoming harder to obtain, so asking a bank to help fund a new product with no certainty of recouping their money may be a very tough job indeed. But there are other means of obtaining the money you need, and they can be a lot less stressful than going cap-in-hand to the bank.

Crowdfunding

This concept rose to prominence a few years ago as a means of securing funds for anything from political campaigns to new product introduction as small amounts from a great number of people who all have a vested interest in the idea. The desire to invest in the scheme varies with the type of product; a political campaign may be invested in by people with similar political views, but investment in a product means offering something else for the dollar that people would be asked to pay. In these cases, it may be possible to give people a free or reduced price example of the product or even make mention of their name on your website or on promotional material. Crowdfunding has become a major means of securing assets for product development, social experiments, and charitable or political campaigns, and is growing in stature.

Kickstarter is one of the largest sites for seeking crowdfunding. The website caters to all sorts of projects from directors seeking funding for a new movie, to start-up funds for company launches. On Kickstarter, all you have to do is to convince enough people that your idea is worthwhile and hope that whatever incentive you offer is enough.

Lone investors

There are many people that make a living from supplying funds for products and making a profit from the resulting sales. Since this type of funding is more akin to gambling, these types of people may require as much information as a bank and tend to have a much better understanding of the new product market than a bank manager. Inventor organizations and forums may be able to put you in touch with people like this.

Government grants

All governments want to help bring new products to the market — as taxes can help boost the local economy. These type of services can usually be sourced from government websites, but new product forums may also carry details about where to apply and what support you are likely to get out of it.

Not having sufficient funding behind you is no longer a relevant reason to ignore the gem of an idea that you have in the back of your mind. Funding for all stages of development and production is usually available, and once you have those initial designs completed or have a rapid prototype model to show, help with the daunting stage of full-scale production will most likely be available to you. All you need is a good idea in the first place. For more information take a look at our Funding your business eBook.

Pivot International is a product design, development, and manufacturing firm with strengths in software development, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, and industrial design. If you are interested in engineering a new product or updating an existing product, contact us at 1-877-206-5001 or request your free consultation today.

Everything You Need to Know About Intellectual Property

Very few of us manage to develop more than one great idea in the field of engineering design, but when we do have that groundbreaking thought, we need to ensure that it is properly protected so we can reap the full benefits from it.

Guide to Intellectual Property

We must also turn to the legal field to make sure that our design or idea can be protected from copy infringement, and that we are able to take it forward without fear of having to share the profits. But what is intellectual property, and how can we benefit from it?

Intellectual property (IP) is any type of original specification, invention, or design that you have thought up and, essentially, own. IP can be recognized world-wide — giving you powers against anyone who infringes your design or idea, and the full power of the law can be used to stop unauthorized manufacture.

IP can be applied to the following items:

Patents

A patent can be taken out on the physical elements that make a device or process work, or on an individual or unique element that makes it differ from similar products. A patent can be awarded for an aspect that is not currently in the public domain. To be considered patentable, your idea has to be novel and useful. It might be a new process or machine, a product, a “composition of matter” such as a new element or compound material, or an improvement to any of the above. You cannot patent something that is fundamentally useless, such as a new two-dimensional shape with some spiky bits and semi-circular parts — while it might look pretty, it may be of no use.

Trademark

Coca-Cola’s universally-known writing, the Nike swoosh, and Apple’s bitten fruit are all well-known trademarks which are heavily protected. A trademark is a sign that can become as well known as the Windows logo, or the Ford name. By registering your trademark, you are protecting both your company name and your products. Anyone trying to emulate either will find themselves in deep legal water.

Registered design

A design is the physical appearance of an entity and by controlling it, you protect your ideas from being copied. The monopoly game itself is not legally protected, but the design of the board, the cards, and the play pieces are all very well controlled through registered designs. Anyone can market their own version of monopoly, but they would have to come up with a completely new design, including the board layout.

Copyright

Copyright applies to all types of literary, drama, musical, and performed works, and is the legal device that allows authors and owners of books, songs, films, and television shows to stop others from copying their ideas and products. Copyright is a very strong law and exists as soon as the work is produced.

IP is handled by national and international policymakers, and is a very complex subject. Anyone considering the use of IP should contact a patent attorney to make sure that they are being completely protected.

The most important aspect of a new product, design, or trademark is secrecy. Once an idea or notion has been discussed outside of the tight legal confines of a signed and agreed non-disclosure agreement, it is effectively deemed to be in the public domain, which can seriously affects a designer’s ability to apply for a patent.

If you develop an idea that you think is worthy of controlling under IP laws, speak to a patent or apply for a patent to protect it yourself. Most countries have a national government office for IP and are usually more than happy to discuss your needs. You never know – you may come up with the next big idea that absolutely everyone must have, and set yourself up to become a billionaire.

Pivot International is a product design, development, and manufacturing firm with strengths in software development, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, and industrial design. If you are interested in engineering a new product or updating an existing product, contact us at 1-877-206-5001 or request your free consultation today.