I need help developing and marketing my invention.

By Colorado Patent Attorney Mark Trenner

Inventors often need help in two areas: (1) legal protection for their inventions, and (2) product development and marketing their product. Unfortunately, these typically cannot be handled by the same person (or even the same business).
Sure, there are invention submission companies that claim to do everything under one roof, from filing a patent application to developing your invention as a product and taking the product to market. But some invention submissions companies have garnered a bad reputation for doing little of either protecting the invention or getting the product to market.
The first step should always be speaking with a patent attorney. Most patent attorneys work on a flat fee or hourly basis, and only charge for the services they perform. Most patent attorneys do not take a stake in the outcome of a product. As such, the patent attorney is focused on what patent attorneys should focus on – helping inventors obtain legal protection for their inventions.
Once the legal protections are in place, typically by filing a patent application for the invention, then the inventor can freely talk to product developers and marketing experts to help develop and bring the product to market.