It can also give you ideas for improving it.

Bang on Bob

Zach a well done 3D virtual prototype should be plenty. If your drawings make logical sense they should prove the concept.

This is possibly redundant but that never stopped me before….

Making a prototype is not required but it is often a wise thing to do. Even a very rough prototype can help prove to yourself that the idea can be done or is worth doing (two different things!) It can also give you ideas for improving it.

Hi Zachary
Building prototypes help prove your product to yourself quicker and this gives you a little more confidence that you may have something. The aesthetic look of the finished product may be different and better on the shelf but getting your mesage across to the buyer must be easy on the ears and in some cases so easy they talk first . I just finished spraying a rapid prototype body for one of my established products and this i want to show potential new customers this as transformed the look of my product and as created more wow factor . I also have added the words Gravity clamp in big bold letters so that any one that looks at the product will get the concept with no words spoken . I am five years into this game and still learning . Hopefully i am getting Better at seeing the big picture. If i meet the right company in Vegas this new form may be born in the USA.

No Smitty you don’t have to build the prototype before submitting. However, any method you have to demonstrate that your concept is viable (in this case meaning your idea’s ability to become a commercial product) is effectively beneficial to your efforts.
A prime example of no prototype is Betsy’s “Eggies”. She submitted only an idea. In my case though, I had a patent and a manufacture’s sample of the product, which I’m convinced proved extremely useful toward my purpose of proving the concept and viability.
Other conveyances of concept can include a video, photographs, a model or simple illustrations.

Hey! I was wondering if you actually have to build the invention prototype to enter into the live product searches?

What’s on your mind Smitty?