I spent most of the day researching both Australian and international patents for anything close to my products. It’s exhausting especially since I’m not an expert in “legal-ese” or product design. There doesn’t appear to be any active ones in Australia which is good. It’s hard to know for sure for the other countries though. As much as I want to consider everything while finalising these designs, I can only spend so much time and money on this now. I’ll have to revisit once the products are proven here, and I’m more serious about exporting.

Today, I also had a good chat with Manufacturer #3 which took forever to organise with them. I have a phone call with Manufacturer #4 (referral from a friend) tomorrow. I want to have a competitive process for selecting my manufacturer to ensure I get the best price and engineering team on board. This is especially important since I’m looking for a long term relationship with them, and the cost of stuffing up a design could cost me 5-figures for a new mould.