OTish-Are there any laws against selling home cast bullets?

[Jason_W]

Further, is a bullet cast from a mold considered intellectual property of sorts?

[Chuck 100 yd]

#1 NO, not here

#2 Call it what it is. (don`t take credit for the design)

[El Chivo]

Jason,

if you want to make bullets to sell, this site has interesting reading for you to consider.

They sell swaging presses, and let you make jacketed bullets, and their standard press is not too expensive.

A little different path from being a caster, but worth a look.

http://www.corbins.com/

[adirondakjack]

To sell bullets as a business, you need only a business license (tax number, etc). Depending on where ya live, that is as easy as going to the county office and filing a DbA (doing business as), and sending to the state for a sales tax number (assuming your state has one).

It is very difficult to claim a bullet as "yours", either by patent or otherwise, because almost evrything has been done at one time or another. My dad patented a bullet in the late 70's, early 80s. It took $7000 for lawyers and 7 years.....

But you generally don't need that. A good design, well cast will sell, and often the problem is too much business or folks don't charge enough and soon find out they are working for peanuts.

I just started selling bullets myself, in addition to my ongoing business. It's a lot of work to make enough good bullets to make a buck, but I like it. I'm waiting on the Master Caster to heat up now.

[bdhold]

My dad patented a bullet in the late 70's, early 80s. It took $7000 for lawyers and 7 years.....

and then if somebody infringes your patent, the best you can hope for is spending another $10,000 to gain a cease-and-desist order.
A couple of bamboo fly rod tapers from living US rodmakers were copied by and sold by the Chinese who also marked the rod-taper-designers names right on the rods. The Chinese rods were being sent to living US rodmakers' shops by US buyers for warranty repairs. Clearly stolen intellectual property and stolen Trademark - it cost them a lot of money and all they got out of it was forcing the Chinese to quit using their names - they couldn't stop them from renaming their tapers and selling them with a different name.

[AJMD429]

My dad patented a bullet in the late 70's, early 80s. It took $7000 for lawyers and 7 years.....

and then if somebody infringes your patent, the best you can hope for is spending another $10,000 to gain a cease-and-desist order.
A couple of bamboo fly rod tapers from living US rodmakers were copied by and sold by the Chinese who also marked the rod-taper-designers names right on the rods. The Chinese rods were being sent to living US rodmakers' shops by US buyers for warranty repairs. Clearly stolen intellectual property and stolen Trademark - it cost them a lot of money and all they got out of it was forcing the Chinese to quit using their names - they couldn't stop them from renaming their tapers and selling them with a different name.

"Investment groups" (often formed by attorneys) will start making a still-patent-protected (drug owned by a smaller drug company in most cases), knowing full-well that it is illegal, yet counting on the sluggish courts and shallow pockets of the smaller company to delay any forced cessation until they've more than made their money back. It used to be insurance companies wouldn't go along with such blatant patent theft, but these days they will jump on the counterfeit products in a minute, pocketing the price difference. By the time it gets to the courts, the investment group has conveniently disbanded and everyone legally distanced enough to stay unharmed and unpunished.

[adirondakjack]

But for something like a bullet, there really is enough market to go around, so a new mold, etc is no reason whatsoever to get all nervous about theft. Even IF the "big boys" steal it, that would be because it has much merit, and you'll still likely have all the busines s you can handle WITHOUT sitting on it and praying for a patent. (My dad was told to forget about a patent, as they are almost never granted for bullets. the search went all the way back to the 1600s looking for some sililar "art". He got his, mainly because of both product and process being unique, but alas never made a dime with it anyway (but that's another story.)

I am of the "weedeater" school. True story:
the fellow who invented the weedeater and began marketing it had either a patent or "applied for" status when Sears stole the idea and began to sell their own "string trimmer". The man was able to prove his case, BUT the judge asked "How many did you sell before Sears promoted and marketed the concept? And how many since? Well since Sears had advertized heavily and the concept took off well, the ORIGINAL weedeater also had a boost in sales. He was awarded "costs and $1 damages", as he had clearly BENEFITTED from the "big boys" stealing from him, but in the process creating a market he could never havce created....

For many, many products (bullets among them, immitation surely is the sincerest form of flattery, and once the idea embeds itself in the consciousness of the public, there will be plenty to go around in terms of sales....

Copyright the name, your logo, trademrks, etc, but just make the durn product and run with it....

[Jason_W]

Thanks for the info, everyone.

The reason I ask is that I'm kicking around the idea of starting a small online store that caters to a niche market. I have a line on a few products that aren't really available in the US yet and I think could really take off. I just need to come up with enough capital to buy in enough bulk to make resale worthwhile. The cast projectiles play a part in my idea.

[adirondakjack]

Thanks for the info, everyone.

The reason I ask is that I'm kicking around the idea of starting a small online store that caters to a niche market. I have a line on a few products that aren't really available in the US yet and I think could really take off. I just need to come up with enough capital to buy in enough bulk to make resale worthwhile. The cast projectiles play a part in my idea.

Jason, about 5 years ago, I was where you are now. I had ideas, I had a (first) product, I just didn't have any money. BUT my wife had been dutifully saving to replace her aging car, and I asked real nice could I borrow her car fund, and could she get by another year with her junker. She agreed, and it was off to the races.

I started a website to sell ONE product, and as time went on came up with a few more of my own, and filled in with some other good stuff from other makers....
cowboy45special.com

It can be done. Keep the faith, and save yer pennies, I pizza here, a movie there, pretty soon you'll have it (especially if ya have a wife willing to drive a junk car a while longer....)

Niche marketing is a good idea, especially if ya can fill in behind that with "convenience" items..... EVERYTHING need not be unique, but if the core product serves a niche, and ya have "odds and ends" to help pay the bills, it works out.

[Jason_W]

Thanks for the info, everyone.

The reason I ask is that I'm kicking around the idea of starting a small online store that caters to a niche market. I have a line on a few products that aren't really available in the US yet and I think could really take off. I just need to come up with enough capital to buy in enough bulk to make resale worthwhile. The cast projectiles play a part in my idea.

Jason, about 5 years ago, I was where you are now. I had ideas, I had a (first) product, I just didn't have any money. BUT my wife had been dutifully saving to replace her aging car, and I asked real nice could I borrow her car fund, and could she get by another year with her junker. She agreed, and it was off to the races.

I started a website to sell ONE product, and as time went on came up with a few more of my own, and filled in with some other good stuff from other makers....
cowboy45special.com

It can be done. Keep the faith, and save yer pennies, I pizza here, a movie there, pretty soon you'll have it (especially if ya have a wife willing to drive a junk car a while longer....)

Niche marketing is a good idea, especially if ya can fill in behind that with "convenience" items..... EVERYTHING need not be unique, but if the core product serves a niche, and ya have "odds and ends" to help pay the bills, it works out.

Thanks for the encouragement, and congrats on your success. It's nice to know that it can still be done.

[El Chivo]

that testing you do is a good way to bring people to your products and your site. Also if your site is giving out info for hunters and shooters, they will come for that, see your ads, and try your products.

I do this with music stuff, people come for free lessons and sheet music and sometimes buy books, sheet music or mp3's. The insidious part is I signed up for Goodle Adsense, which puts banners on my site. My visitors see the ads and click on them occasionally, it adds up to about a buck a day. Which pays for the site already, and then some.

The ads are targeted ads, which means mostly music-related ads are sent. I don't know how they react to gun sites, but it would be worth a try.

Also, there is a site that I use that does credit card processing for a percentage, but NO minimums or fees. You only pay when you sell something. They're a good outfit. www.ccnow.

If you try to get your own merchant account, it's up around $100 a month for fees plus a setup or software charge, and they still charge a percentage. Or check into Paypal or Gunpal.

[rimrock]

I believe if you check BATFE regs, you'll learn ther is an 11% excise tax for selling home cast bullets.

rimrock