Drayman

I looked in to this recently as I was thinking of buying chokes in the US - take care. A gun or part of gun may be considered as a gun and confiscated. This happened to business colleagues. One tried to come back to the UK with a set of chokes and had them removed at the US airport. Another was shipping his gun but had a choke set in his hand luggage for an internal flight. He presented them to security who relieved him off them as he wasn't allowed to carry a "gun" on board and didn't have the paperwork in place to ship separately. Neither got their chokes back. Make sure you know the state, federal and airline rules as getting it wrong may flag up on your next visit to the US. Daft I know but that's life. I decided it wasn't worth the risk for the amount I could save. Also remember you'll pay purchase tax at the checkout so that needs to be added to the price you see on the item.

A possible alternative. Anyone in the family with some money? You could write a simple agreement to borrow £1000, paid back after 20 months + 10% capital interest i.e £1100. That would be more than they are currently getting in interest on their savings. In the meantime you put your £50 a month in to a building society (don't touch it) and get a few quid interest and then pay the whole lot back after 20 months. Just get it on paper with both sides signing and both keep a copy. Not a Jimmy but have you checked Florida1 in the "other sales" section?

Just a personal example so make of it what you will. My son is obviously left eye dominant but shoots off his right shoulder. In fact he can shoot off both shoulders and for fun he will take a pair of driven birds, one off one shoulder and one off the other and call it a left and right just to mock some of us older shooters - deserves a slap really. But that aside, we've looked at all of the "fixes" for eye dominance. He's persevered to shoot both eyes open as he knows it's best in the field and says that anything that draws his attention to the barrels causes problems. He says that as long as he concentrates hard on the target it works - both clays and game - and he's good damn-it. He just has to keep the barrels out of the equation as much as possible. As I said, just one example.

Both fair points but if you are dealing with a crook life is always going to be tough. It also means that there is a chance that at some point you may have to perjure yourself. If you are happy to go that far then there isn't much to be done. Whoever you share the idea with is just as likely to shop you too when things go wrong! No such thing as honour among thieves. That's why good NDA's don't only cover the area but also cover consequences. Good NDA's with companies or individuals work. I know as I've been involved over the years enforcing some (and winning) and regularly specifying details within them. But I agree, life gets tough when you deal with crooks. If NDA's didn't work then there would be very little innovation or invention as most individuals and companies of all sizes need help at some point. It then becomes a question of how deep are each party's pockets. If you are only worth 50,000 (at the moment) and I can afford it then yes I'll sue for current and future lost revenue, in fact everything you have now and as much as possible from your future - been there, done that in corporate land - even if it doesn't get all the money back . That's why even individual and small business NDA's should have an insurance clause that normally exceeds £1mm. If you can't cover yourself with insurance for breach of an NDA then you won't be signing one with me. Even patents don't fully protect you unless you have the pockets to defend them. But you are right, there is a way around just about everything if you want to find it but, what you are saying is why bother going to an attorney, the patent office, design registration etc. so still a circular argument. At some point you'll have to share.

It really just means spread them out across the day and don't take all at once. More important is whether it says to take with (before or after) food.

Sounds like a circular argument. "NDA's aren't worth the paper they are printed on" ... "get yourself to a patent attorney... " who will tell you not to disclose an idea until you have an NDA in place NDA's are absolutely worth having, as long as they are properly written as they generally lack specificity. You would be surprised how many poor NDA's come from law firms and international company lawyers. BUT, if someone breaks the NDA then it's up to you to sue them which, in itself, isn't much fun. Alan l50 - did the law firm not advise you on protection, including retrospectively? It's probably not worth the effort but you could probably go back and get compensation from your "friend". It's only going to take an hour or so on the net to see if WelshLamb has something with potential or if it has obviously been done before (or something close) - it only requires key word searching. I've never really seen the point in asking an expensive law firm to put the same words in to Google and charge me for the pleasure. If she keeps a record of her key word searches it should also reduce the bill with the law firm

Well the professional advice is that at some point someone is going to need to do a prior art search whether it's a design change or inventive step. Searches involve time and time is money. Either you start it, the patent lawyer starts it or another company starts it, and only one of these is free! Even when you think you've covered everything it doesn't mean you are the first with the design or inventive step as all sorts of things come out of the woodwork once you file either the design registration or the patent and other interested parties take a look at it. Even after a design or patent is granted it can still be revoked. As was said above, you will be surprised what's already out there as IP even though it hasn't made it to the market as a product. If a patent office can give you free guidance then take it. Ask them to advise on the best process for your idea. Then they'll say to you, "are you sure it hasn't been done before and what have you done to check? Take a look here (patents only) and just add in some key words and hit return http://worldwide.espacenet.com/advancedSearch?locale=en_EP Let's say you have invented a new fuel filter for trucks. Do the search under AT LEAST all of the following Fuel + Filter - 3,495 hits Fuel + Truck -148 hits Fuel + filter + Commercial vehicle - 1 hit Filter + commercial vehicle - 40 hits Engine + Filter - > 4000 hits Diesel + Filter > 2800 hits and so on..... and then start to narrow it down. Have a read of the titles of the first couple of pages and check that nothing looks to be the same as your idea. This will give you more confidence to go the next step. Lots of folks come up with inventions and many are very good, but often it is only an invention to them and not to someone skilled in the art i.e. someone who's been around the field of invention for some time. The real hard work is first making sure you have something new. Alternatively, you just pay someone to do it for you but, even if done by a patent lawyer it is not a guarantee that you have an invention or new design, only that they haven't found any prior art so far.

A few things to consider: HDAV said it above - do a prior art search. Think of all the ways you could describe your invention and search those on the web. Don't pay anyone to do this for you until you've done the basics yourself. If it still looks to be inventive then go to the next stage. Is there another way to do what your product does and is that already out there. Decide how it's going to make you money - how many would you be likely to sell, or, if you have the patent what's that likely to be worth to a company (sell the patent) if they wanted to fit your idea to a whole load of trucks. Royalties are generally not liked. There is more than one way to make money. Get in touch with a company and ask them what they need in place to discuss any product idea - if they say nothing then walk away. A good company will aim to protect you as it is in their interest. I once approached Ford with an idea and they wouldn't discuss it until I had a patent filed. At minimum it should be an NDA (non disclosure agreement). These are binding but get someone who knows to look it over - the devil is in the detail! Sharing your idea does not immediately put it in the public domain, but you need agreements with anyone you plan to share with! Alternatively you share with someone you trust but that depends how much you trust them! Be honest about costs - are you expecting the company to come up with the money for a prototype because you either don't want to or can't afford it. If so, why would they pay for the initial stages. Why not have a prototype made under an NDA. Decide what you really want from it. Do you just want to see your invention in the market to say - I did that, or do you want to make some money. The UK patent process takes ~2-4 years if everything goes well. You might be better off getting the NDA prepared plus all your documents / drawings about the invention and then talking to a bigger company (parts or trucks) who will also have their own patent lawyers who will know the area well and can spend the money to get the right protection for the invention. An alternative is to start your own company and produce the product - doesn't protect it but can make you money. All the above sounds like a lot of hurdles but it's just about being honest with yourself, doing some searching, and spending some cash. Hope it goes well and good luck.

Why not take it back and try for a credit note / other goods. I presume you have a card receipt of statement for it so that should be enough - worth a try as you won't be any worse off than you are now. Have a look here http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2008/dec/20/receipts-consumer-affairs

You should try Australia. 2 years ago we were at the Hanging Rock races. Every road away from the race course had a random stop, and that included the dirt road which folks use to avoid the police! We were there for 5 weeks over Christmas and in that time we had 4 random stops but, they stop everyone. In one place you left the motorway on a down ramp to go under the road - under the bridge was a random checkpoint. So just when folks had thought they had made it out of the city and in to the country - gotcha! The Aussies just seem to take it in their stride. Mind you, their roadside adverts are more to the point. One bill board read, "if you drink and drive you're bl--dy stupid". Probably should have said ....bl--dy dangerous!

To bring the thread to a close. Went to the gunsmith today and I was quoted £50 and, as he was doing the same work on two other guns today (everything set up for work), I could have it back tomorrow! So that's sorted. The only problem is that I ended up buying another gun so the visit has cost me much more than I planned. Thanks for all the replies.

Its a side lock SxS Zabala. There's a very good one on Gunstar for £500 so this one is going to be worth considerably less! I'll see what the smith says.

Just so I'm clear on the proposal for cannabis: 1. Cannabis will be supplied by the pharmaceutical industry. 2. The government will tax the supply from the industry. 3. They won't tax the black market supply. 4. There will be some mechanism where people can buy the product produced from the pharma industry but as yet unknown. 5. The supply of a drug from the pharma industry will have to fall under the medicines directive and will need a prescription. 6. THC levels will have to be defined and limited for the industry product. 7. Statute will have to be changed to decriminalise possession of small amounts. 8. International treaties will have to be changed or we will have to go against them in order to allow the sale of a narcotic. 9. DUI and safe limits will need to be defined. 10. Declaration of use may be required for motoring insurance and or other licences. 11. Minimum age of use needs to be set. Just trying to see where we've got to.

The barrels are well within proof - that's the first thing I had the RFD check when it arrived at his shop (it was RFD'd to a local shop), but he pointed out the movement on the face. It doesn't show with the fore end on the gun, only when you take it off, and it's not that much but it is there. His description at the time was "probably OK for now but needs to be fixed for the future". I would only pass it on to someone if I gave them all the details, unlike the original seller, hence my question about scrapping it. The gunsmith may surprise me and come in with a good price, but somehow life isn't generally like that. I'll know later this week but I wanted to be in a knowledgeable position when I make the decision on what to do with it. Cheers.

Thanks for the replies - always helpful to check when folks have been through this before.. I bought the gun a while ago via a forum member - it was advertised through the forum but the description was 'somewhat economical'. Turned out the gun is not completely tight on the face. Other than that it has very good barrels and works but I feel it needs fixing. I've put it down to experience but won't be going that route again. I'm going to the gunsmith later this week to get a price to fix (not a difficult fix in the right hands) but suspect I will be better off putting the money to another gun. That will probably leave me with a gun that's not wanted, unless the shop wants it. We'll see what happens but I fully expect to be scrapping it. You live and learn!