After the idea phase

Now that you have had that potentially life changing idea (for both you and the world), what's the next step? For us, it is getting on the internet to see if there is already something like my idea. You might be suprised to find out someone else has had the same idea. This still might be OK. You might be able to improve on their idea. If something is similar to your idea check out if it is patented. Google patents is a good user friendly place to start. You can also go to www.uspto.gov/ which allows you to also search for trademarks and copyrights. Trademarks and copyrights can be just as valuable as a patent. It's all intellectual property that has value. If everything looks good, build a prototype. Don't worry to much about what the components cost to build your prototype at this point. You will almost ceartianly be able to make the actual product cheaper once production starts. Now you can file for a provisional patent application even if you don't have a prototype. In the next blog, I'll go into more detail about the differences in patents.