Patent Advice for Golf Putter Innovation - Student Seeking Next Steps

[shamrock5585]

So I am currently a student at Wentworth Institute of Technology and I am studying Electromechanical Engineering. I am going into my 5th year and I have a lot of great ideas floating around in my head. I came across a great idea for a golf club that should help an average golfer with their putting. So basically I am looking to get a patent on this idea so that I could go further by selling it to manufacturers or starting a business. The idea is for a putter and it has a moving counter weight... I have looked everywhere and I have not seen any rule that prohibits this in golf.

So I am looking for advice where to go from here... I have gone to an invention website already and talked about the idea with them. For 800 dollars they have put together a market report for the idea and told me that the next step is to get investors to get it off the ground and get the patent. The only problem is they have done their part and expect me to come up with around $10,000 to get the actual patent. Like I said, I am a college student and definately do not have access to large amounts of money at this time. I would really appreciate anyone that has some insight to where I should go next or what to do.

I feel this idea has a lot of potential seeing as there is no other idea like this and that golf is an extremely large market to tap into. The club should be low cost to manufacture and golf is an international sport. I think this idea has a lot of potential pending how well the prototype works.

I am trying to put together a business report and am in the process of making a prototype...
What next?

Please Help!
Bryan

 

[lisab]

If I were you, I wouldn't give anyone any more money until you have built the prototype and worked out the bugs. Good as the idea may be on paper, there could be unexpected problems you discover once the thing is actually in your hands.

Once you build one, let other people try it and listen carefully to their feedback.

 

[shamrock5585]

yes i understand this... i have edited the idea many times to make it better and better and i understand there will still be bugs in the final product that need to be worked out... but I need advice on where to go once i have the prototype up and ready...

 

[berkeman]

This is an excellent book for you to get and read:

http://www.nolo.com/product.cfm/ObjectID/139AEDE9-69A0-4810-A7A87D2AD5422664/310/

"Patent it Yourself" by the Nolo Press. Even if you end up paying a patent lawyer to write and file the patent, the knowledge that you get from this book is very helpful. It also deals a lot with how to protect your rights to the idea.

One word of caution, though, about new ideas in golf. If something comes along that can give an advantage to golfers who use it, you have to be concerned that the rules will get changed to not allow the innovation. Golf can be pretty bad in that.

 

[shamrock5585]

thanks... any other advice is greatly appreciated!