My dh and I have invented an electric baby product. I gave him the specs after I have searched high and low for this so I could buy one myself, lol and soon realized no one made it. So I decided we needed to invent it because there is definitely a need for it. He's designed blueprints for it and we're now working on the prototype. It's great to have an engineer for a hubby sometimes, lol.

So now I've been delving into the whole patent/invention process to see what's it's going to take to really do it. It seems so overwhelming. I'm extremely leery of those "invention submission" companies, but I feel like I've made some progress, lol. I did find our local inventor's organization and I'm sending him to the meetings, and I found a free seminar by a patent attorney at a nearby library for Q & A all about patents that I'm sending him too as well, lol.

I'm just curious if anyone has any personal experience and would love to hear your story.

Thanks!!

My mom has an invention that she has patented. It has been nearly 6 years since she has applied and finally on the way to making the molds from the prototype. She has a 10 year patent and no one can make anything similar to her inverntion for that period of time. It has cost her a fortune, but she will make more than a fortune when she markets it.

She did not go thru the "invention submission" companies, she went to a patent attorney. (the one who helped patent the hair bandini) :) He said be leary of places like that, you are more likely to lose the rights to your invention that way. You'll need the patent offices to do a thorough search to make sure no one else has applied for a patent on an item similar to yours.

hth's