PLEASE HELP!!!! We have a muse but not sure what to do with it...

[hottoddy]

My wife and I were waxing nostalgic about our recent travels and recalled an herb we fortuitously stumbled upon that has a very specific and highly coveted health benefit. The herb grows naturally so it would be difficult to "corner the market" and/or patent it (or is there a way to do this?) Instead, we'd like to approach a well-known beverage company and pitch the idea of utilizing this herb in their drinks. Perhaps we could work with said beverage company to develop a product and work out a profit sharing arrangement? Or should we come up with our own private label and market it that way? I'd like to pitch the idea, have the beverage company take care of all the marketing, advertising, distribution and production and we just sit back and watch the royalties roll in. What is the next step we should take? Our concern is that we pitch the idea and the beverage company takes it, runs with it and leaves us in the dust. How do we get this thing to market and at the same time protect ourselves? Any helpful and pertinent advice would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers!

[cchapman84]

Approaching a well-known beverage company with an idea about an ingredient (especially one that you can't patent or claim as your intellectual property), to me, is just asking for them to go ahead and use your good idea and never pay you a dime for it (which, legally, they could do as far as I know). Your best bet is to come up with some kind of supplement using that ingredient, or some type of beverage (you can outsource all of this) and sell it yourself. I'm thinking that something in pill or powder form would be easier to sell online than a liquid, so you might want to go that route. Launching a new beverage takes a lot of time and money if you want to do it through traditional routes (stores, etc.). You might consider marketing it through another means, though. Maybe just health food stores, or health clubs? Depends on your product. That might also command a higher price.

I would definitely be careful approaching any business with an idea that you don't have any intellectual property rights over, because there's really nothing stopping them from just taking your idea (well, ethically they shouldn't, but legally, there's nothing wrong with it).