This is my first time posting here, so please be gentle
I have an idea for a new fast food restaurant that, as far as I can tell, has not been done before.
One of my worries is, once I open up a store, the big dogs in the business will copy it and blow me out of the water. Kind of like MOD PIZZA and FIRED PIE PIZZA and others where copy cats exploded across the country.
How do I protect my idea, or do I need to go to the big dogs and sell them my idea? I think this could be huge....
There was a Food Truck here that patented their method to make a sandwich and Sandwich Making Machine (it drills holes into hoagie bread longitudinally and stuffs ingredients into the hollow bread with a plastic sheet). As far as I could tell, they were not really in the "Food Truck Business" per-se, because they just parked their truck at the commissary pretty much every day and never went out. I really think the guy started the business just so he could sue people once they stole his idea... Food for Thought.
Depending on your idea and whether or not it's eligible to be patented, you could do so and depending on tour aspirations, could look into licensing it out to other vendors.
Well it depends i guess on wether or not you want to work in the business.
I agree with FP that if the idea is proven to make money, people interested would most likely come knocking on your door.
Now if you think you can make more money executing your idea and investing in it that go for it.
Sure sometimes other competitors in the market attempt to do the same thing, but i like to think that if the product is of quality and is THE BEST, then people won´t want to go for the second or third best alternative.
For example I love creampuffs, i have eaten many and have found what i consider the best one in town in a a great bakery. Do you think i eat creampuffs from other bakeries that aren´t the best. Nope i go for the one i love.
Of course this has to do more with one single type of food item, and not an entire concept.
Once you PROVE that is will make money, the cat is out of the bag..... Maybe I just need to get a big investor to take my idea and do it right. Maybe I can get a few percentage points from the annual profits...
IDK... Last time I saw it was in 2012. Beli is the name of it. Like I said, they were always just parked at the commissary. No employees around, never left, non-operational for the most part. They would only do catering events every once in a while, it seemed. Looks like their Yelp page says it's closed. Their website is still operational though.
Vic pretty much hit the nail on the head. You really can't protect a food item. It's pretty hard, almost impossible to corner the market on a food item. The way companies do it is by coming up with a machine that they can patent that creates of the food, or coming up with a name or a gimmick to call it or sell it, but the food itself is pretty hard to protect. Sure, there is only one "Twinkie" but there are a million cream filled sponge cake snacks out there. There's only one "Slushee" but there are a million imitators in almost every gas station.
Instead of worrying about putting it out there and worrying about the "big dogs" stealing your idea, why don't you put it out there and just worry about doing it better than anyone else?
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