While Christmas is fresh on your minds, I know you inventors have plenty of ideas for how to improve it. Before those visions of sugar plums and the money to be made from them leave your minds, the Christmas Tree Shops, through Edison Nation, want your ideas. Hurry now, you have only until February 15, 2010 to get your entries in.
Edison Nation refers you to Christmas Tree Shops to see the kinds of products the chain store sells, but unfortunately, the products are not shown online. So, either visit a store (most in Northeast region of the US), or go by this list of products recommended by Edison Nation:
• Toys
• Kitchen gadgets
• Household furnishings
• Small appliances
• Novelty gifts
• Holiday décor and decorations
• Food prep items
Questions you should ask yourself before developing/submitting your idea:
• Can my product be put on or under a Christmas tree?
• Does my product make a good gift?
• Will my product make people happy?
• Does my product solve a problem?
• Is my product an incredible value – a bargain that can’t be missed!
• Can my idea be easily explained or demonstrated in a visually interesting manner?
• Can Santa’s elves make my product in less than 12 months?
Unique and protectable products are a must for this competition, so my advice would be to submit a provisional patent application to the USPTO before you submit your idea to Edison Nation.
It is in your best interests to read and understand certain agreements BEFORE
getting involved in this competition: particularly the Innovator Agreement and the Assignment Agreement. You can download both
agreements by visiting the Frequently Asked Questions section near the bottom of the Christmas Tree Products information page at Edison Nation, and clicking on "Where can I download and review the legal agreement for Live Product Search?"
The document you download will contain both Edison Nation’s Innovator Agreement and Assignment Agreement. The Assignment Agreement states what fees will paid to you: keep in mind that the fees you get will be a percentage of Edison Nation’s revenues, not the total product revenues.
For your protection, read everything you can on this competition before entering, including all the answers to Frequently Asked Questions. The deadline is February 15, 2010, so forget about Valentine’s Day and get back to Christmas!
(P.S. If anyone finds a link to online products sold by the Christmas Tree Shops, please let us know in the comments section. Thanks!)
