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Expenses during the development, protection and marketing phases of inventing do not all occur at once. There is no need to have all the money that will be spent on the project at the beginning of the process. Very few independent inventors have a surplus amount of money set aside with which to pursue their product ideas. Most of us are operating on shoestring budgets. Many have succeeded and so can you. It may be necessary to save for a while and then move to the next phase of your product development. Then save again for the next phase and so on. As you read this book – or any book that details the steps in product development – you will see that there are lots of details related to your invention that you could be doing while you are saving between expenditures. So, it isn’t as if you have to spend all of your time in a holding pattern while you accumulate the needed funds.

Using the patents that are most similar to your invention, click on the link for each patent that is listed under “References Cited.” This is the prior art that has been listed as being the most similar to that patent. This is where you will find the patents that are similar, regardless of when they were issued. Often you will find patents dating back many years in this section. Examine each of those carefully, looking at the images if you need to, in order to understand how they are similar or dissimilar to your idea. If you continue to pursue your invention and a patent application is filed, some of these same patents may be cited as prior art on your application. Look at the classification numbers on these patents to make sure that you have not missed one that should be checked.