Hlp..? Kinda?

Draw it as well as you can, and go to www.uspto.gov (the United States Patent Office website, and download the official guide on how to file for a patent. It isn't very expensive to protect yourself. Once they accept it, you can write Patent Pending and companies that may want to produce it are warned that you own the design.

Jim

The easy part is the idea, creating a prototype, and getting it patented, if possible. The cost depends on the complexity of the product.

Assuming it's not a government regulated product, the biggest challenge is engineering (can you produce it profitability?) and marketing (pricing, promotion and distribution). We, at least I, have heard so many stories about an invention that made millions, but the inventor received little of the reward and it has always seemed unfair to me. But you know, you can have the best product in the world, but if only 100 people know about it, you might sell 1. So marketing & distribution is BIG, BIG, BIG. How many IPhones do you think they could have sold on your marketing budget?

Having spent the last 4 years personally designing, patenting, developing, producing, marketing and selling my own "invention", I can honestly tell you the idea is the easy part. Unless you have the right capital structure (READ: money to risk) and many hours a day to devote to it, my advice is to market the idea if you can.

There are several services out there - use keywords "invention marketing services" or "license manufacturing" to find one you can trust.

I am certainly not trying to burst your bubble - if you think can make a go of it, do so - but do it with your eyes open.