Patents....designs....help!!

I dont post many threads but i need some help from you guys and gals

Im a bit of an inventor, im always coming up with ideas that would appeal to the mass market. Many years ago at college i came (1997) up with the idea of a spirit level on a drill....a few years later....its on the market!

Ive come up with 2 ideas that i feel can not only help make tasks easier...but far cheaper.

Anyone have any knowledge on how to get patents, how to get these ideas out there??

Ive got Autodesk Inventor so im doing some mock ups on there at the moment.....i dont think i have any real chance in making a working prototype purely because of the costs involved.

Id love to see a product ive designed making peoples lives easier....the money would come in handy too

Id be happy taking a royalty fee as i know the products ive come up with would sell like hotcakes in the industry they are designed for.

Im a time served mechanical engineer, so ive always loved inventing stuff....nows the time for me to benefit from my ideas before someone else comes up with the same stuff and markets it haha.

The only thing I know about patents is that getting all national/international patents is way too expensive.

It almost smells like another conspiracy.

Good luck finding investors/funding.

reply to post by Grey Magic


haha yup thats what i fear too.....cost!!!

I would need worldwide patents....might have to sell a kidney or something hahahaha (joking of course)

Its ridiculous really, so many brilliant ideas are forgot about because of the cost of protecting your ideas. Kinda defeats the object of inventors really

Clearly only rich people are clever haha

To begin with several obvious things you need to ask yourself

How to Patent A Product Idea

reply to post by loves a conspiricy


actually, it depends on the complexity of your design, for example if it's a machine with many moving parts, then it costs more. you can actually draw up a patent form yourself, but that is risky since you may not cover all your bases and wind up getting your idea stolen, it's best to go through a lawyer. last time i checked it was around 2 G's at the minimum (that was 4 years ago).

another way that you could go about getting your patent is what we call 'the poor man's patent'. be forewarned though as one of my professors told me this wouldn't be honored in court, but, but, i think it stands a chance, it's at least better than nothing. you pretty much mock up your patent form with as much info as you can, and then mail it to yourself, then just keep the letter and if someone steals your idea, you have a package with your design inside that is postmarked. so you can prove that you had the idea first because of the postmark. just don't open it.