Q: I would like to patent a special workout bench. I have no clue where to start though

A: You will need to contact a patent attorney. Patents are not something that most people can do themselves; unless you've worked on a number of patent applications with a patent attorney before and understand the entire process, you really need to have a patent attorney do the work for you.

You can choose a patent attorney anywhere in the US; the patent attorney does not have to be in the same state as you are. If you are not able to choose a patent attorney, you can call a local bar association, or call any attorney that you know -- attorneys love to give and get referrals.

Before calling up or e-mailing an attorney, make sure that you have a good idea on how you want to make money with the patent. A patent attorney will likely be able to get a patent for you, and may help you to decide whether you need a patent, but the determination if it makes business sense to get a patent rests with you. A patent may cost $15K, $20K, or $30K to get, so you do not want to be wasting your money if the patent is not going to be useful. Are you going to produce the bench and sell it yourself? How are you going to sell it? How are you going to manufacture it? Are you going to manufacture it in the US, or Mexico, or China, or elsewhere? Or are you going to want to sell the patent to some large manufacturers? If so, do you already know which ones? You do not have to have the manufacturing, marketing, licensing, etc. finished, but you should have a rough idea of what the patent will do for you.

Good luck!

A: To augment Mr. Mlynek's answer -- you may want to start out searching to see what sort of workout benches are already patented. You can use my slide set at http://bit.ly/Patent_Searching to get some tips on patent searching.

Once you have looked at a few relevant patents, you have have a much better appreciation for the level of detail required. You may want to read some patent claims to see how that part works as the patent claim is the legal grant to the patent owner that people cannot do what is in the claim without the permission of the patent owner during the life of the patent. The goal of the patent attorney is to get you the broadest possible claims without bumping into the prior art. It is a hard task.

You should read the profiles and the answers of several attorneys listed here on Justia and sort out which ones seem to communicate in a way that makes sense to you and have a relevant technical background.

I hope this helps.

Kevin E Flynn