What is a Product Worth?

Commercial products can be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars over several or many years. Patents are absolutely needed for mechanical products. But chemical products are different.  It is my opinion that secrecy is more effective at keeping this type of product proprietary.  This is usually possible only if the manufacturer is not required by law to list every chemical ingredient on the Safety Data Sheet. Manufacturers also include less than one percent of certain chems that really don't matter, and call them "proprietary". Ingredients that are less than one percent do not have to be identified by law.  Hence there is no need to list a CAS number for any ingredients that are less than one percent!  Either way steps should be taken to keep the identity of the formula of the product proprietary.

In discussing certain products that I have developed with manufacturers I have been told these cannot be public knowledge.  Manufacturers will not get involved with any product that is public knowledge.  This is another reason why people will not get patents on chemical products. Anyone can look up patents and find out what the chemical identity and formula is.  I do it all the time.  The secret and hence ownership is lost at that point because anyone can change it a little bit, then market the product as their own. 

Products can make window cleaners a lot of money too.  After all they are tools. Even soaps are tools.  You can clean a window with any number of different soaps and chemicals.  But we all have our favorites.  Although I can make the same money with a different window cleaning soap/chem.  However what about a chemical/compound for removing hard water spots?  Or a chemical product for removing some deposit from a window surface that scratches real easy?  If razors cannot be used than it becomes necessary to use a product that will remove the deposit well, and do this as fast as possible.  Simply because time is money.  So yes certain products have a high value even in Window Cleaning.  Whether we are a manufacturer of products or use them in our work, chemical products have a high value.

It is for this reason that I am still working on developing different products for us to use in our work. The difference is that most of these products cannot be converted to commercial products.  They cannot be sold through a distribution network. Either because of their cost, ease of acquisition at a reasonable cost, or they have a very limited shelf life.  Although these products can on occasion be superior to similar commercial products.  They can also be inferior.  

As I continue to develop these products I will include videos to show how they work.  Here is a new one I have developed called Wet & Seal.  Just one ingredient that is added to water.  Wet the window and squeegee off.  Done.  This video looks quite appealing.  But I needed to polish the glass first to get a good coating.  Which is an extra step.  Done the first time only.  Then when I tested it in the field I discovered the coating/sealant came off when I cleaned the window a second time with an ordinary cleaning solution of Dawn.  So this would not be a product that could be converted to a commercial product.

When it comes to sealers as a friend brought to my attention over the WCR Forum, preperation of the surface is many times required.  This is an additional step that of course requires extra time.  Even if it only needs to be done once it is still one more step.  Which must be added into the total cost of the job.

Written by Henry Grover Jr.
henrygroverjr@gmail.com

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