Hello Jonah, I am sure you will receive other suggestions but you might want to go to the “The Idea Den” forum and see what is going on there. Either scroll down through the forums or use the little Search button above right.

Good luck.

Hello Jonah, Do yourself a favor, before you discuss your idea with anyone make sure you have them sign an NDA, this way it takes some of the worry away from sharing your idea.

Read some books such as “Standalone Inventor” or “Inventing for Dummies” or Louis Foreman’s book “The Independent Inventor’s Handbook”. Also, companies typically don’t buy ideas, they want something more tangible such as patents and/or working prototypes and/or drawings. Best of luck.

Jonah, read the books listed and get a good base of knowledge before spending any money on patents. Inventors are to quick to rush forward without doing their homework and find themselves in debt before they realize it. You want to make informed decisions not rapid responses.
Use the search feature on this site and you will find a large number of your questions already answered here. For example you may want to look at this sell sheet here to get an idea of what they are http://www.edisonnation.com/forums/selling/topi...

Good luck.

http://www.rogerbrown.net

Welcome to the club of paranoid inventors. There is no magic formula for success. The books listed are helpful. Personally, I always have CAD drawings done and make a prototype to start. I google and check previous patents to make sure I haven’t invented something that’s already been invented. At least 80% of my “inventions” have already been invented but may not have been commercialized. Sometimes I use non-disclosure agreements, that gives me longer time to actually file a patent. Sometimes I file a provisional patent. I don’t file a full blown utility patent until I have a licensee and then I charge some money up front to cover patent costs.

Give us an idea of what resources you need and I’m sure you’ll get plenty of suggestions. I would be happy to give you the names of some resonably priced CAD designers. Don’t make the mistake of trying to sell an “Idea”. Companies want to see and feel the product, or at least a prototype.

Good luck,
Don

Jonah, congratulations on your creativity. Listen to the advice of the experts. Read as much as you can, and visit these forums as often as you can. Good Luck!

I’ve heard of this great place where for $25 you can have your idea appraised in total confidence by people in the inventing business. They even have the power to get your invention to market. Whatever you do, don’t go to the Idea Den because there are thousands just waiting to steal your idea. It’s better to allow your idea to wither on the vine than risk revealing it because as you know 99.9% of good ideas are stolen once they prove they make money. My favourite quote “Don’t worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you’ll have to ram them down people’s throats.” Howard Aiken

Having been exactly where you are at less than 2 years ago I will point out that it is hard work but fun creating a product.

My product was simple to prototype myself with help from people I found on the internet. Local people.

Then the testing… both product and consumer opinion…

Getting a registered trademark for the name was an early 9 month step/process. I used “legal zoom” for that. (success!!!!)

Once we nailed down the design… I had what needed to be MFG done in China with assembly here in Florida.

Now after a redesign… Product is set.

Do NOT be afraid of mistakes… you will make them. Books cannot stop that from happening.

Just relax and the answers will come to you.

Nice post John…John. That’s what I say…jump in and work it out as you go because you just can’t plan it all anyway.

Ron Komorowski
Inventor of Handi-Straps
www.handi-straps.com

Actually you can’t really plan for anything at all. Just do it. If I planned for everything I wouldn’t have done it. As each problem arises in the idea to prototype to product process… a solution presented itself.

You don’t need to know how everything works in the process. Each “thing” you will learn when you need to know it.

(I didn’t know what harmonized international tarrif codes were going in.)