Q: Hi I had an idea for a product but I don't know how to go about securing the idea as my own.

A: You should consult a patent attorney to see if your idea could be put into practice and be a patentable invention. A patent attorney can also assist in doing a patentability evaluation of your invention.

A: This is a very common question. Unfortunately, you are not going to like the answer. I apologize in advance.

An idea, even after it has been flushed out to become a patentable invention, is not worth very much. Companies buy or license profitable businesses, profitable products or services, or something that the company could easily upscale and sell along with their own products. They have their own R&D and are generally not very receptive to developing other people's ideas.

To make money on your invention, the company will need to figure out a way to optimize it, manufacture it, market it, set up the sales channels, map out the product life cycle, etc. This takes a lot of work. As they say: 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration.

To be successful in making money off your idea, put together a business plan. Figure out the marketing, the pain points that you are solving, the PLC, the size of your market, the HR, the QA & QC setups, the production, the pilot plant, the development routes, the financing for all of this, etc. Once you have that, once it makes business sense, once you are ready to spend the money and pull the trigger, only then do you go see a patent attorney.

Any patent attorney will be happy to take your money to get you a patent. But you really do not want to spend $20K to $40K to get a patent, without having all of this thought through.

Good luck!