Q1: What is the nature of the product? What are its strengths and weaknesses?
A1: The Beach Carrier is a new product concept developed by Mary Ricci. It is a large, lightweight, durable bag that is designed to carry everything required for a day at the beach, including a chair. The Beach Carrier can be folded down to a 12-inch by 12-inch square for easy storage when not in use. It comes with an adjustable strap and various-sized pockets for carrying all types of items to the beach or other outdoor activities (i.e. concerts, picnics, and barbecues).

The Beach Carrier possesses several strengths relative to competitive products in the market, including the following:
1. First, the overall product concept of a single bag that can carry
Again, this seems to be a flawed assumption and she would have probably been better off trying to find out the current sales of either the “Caddy Shack” or the “Wonder Wheel”. In my opinion, this also appears to be an overestimate of the market potential and could negatively impact the break-even point.
5. In addition, Ricci has assumed that women buy new beach bags every third year but all three products in this market space, especially the Beach Carrier, promote their level of durability. Therefore, the turnover of bags may not be as frequent as the historical data suggest and thus the market potential may again be overstated.
6. Finally, it does not appear that Ricci’s financial analysis has taken into account the fact that the Beach Carrier will be a highly seasonal product. Therefore, she must account for this fluctuation in production, inventory maintenance, start-up funding, and overall cash flow as well as determining when best to launch the product.

Q3: How can Ricci protect her product design?
A3: In order to the product design and overall business concept of the Beach Carrier, Mary Ricci should retain a patent attorney to conduct a patent search. If the product design of the Beach Carrier is determined to be patentable, Mary and her legal counsel should apply for a utility patent and/or design patent. Until