Taking Patents By Storm!

So, I've been vascilating back and forth between patent lawyer and do-it-yourself... And, of course, the obvious choice for those of us to whom money is no object... HIRE THE LAWYER. But, alas, it is not so for me and my fledgling sling business. So, I have been doing lots of research on the internet.

I have been searching the US Patent and Trademark Office website, but let's just be real here... I have no idea what all those codes mean! C'mon! Do you gotta be a genius to be an inventor? Maybe so. I don't claim to aspire to a perpetual loftiness of thought. But, every now and then I do have a good idea. Hence, The Posh Pod Sling.

But, I'll be real honest, this whole process has broken my idea down to it's most basic parts and called the validity of the "invention" label into question multiple times. In my head (and on my prototypes) I can see all the ways that my sling is so very different from every other sling on the market. But in writing... uh... (*crickets*)

And, to top it all off, I'm being told over and over again that I need to be vague, very vague. Well good grief! How ridiculous is that? Ok then, I made a sling. There ya' go. Except that won't do it. I have to go through this intricate sidestepping of details to create my vague description of my one of a kind object. Ironic? Maybe.

Until tonight I'd been doing all my research on the USPTO website and pretty much clicking in circles (thanks gov't web guy). But tonight, I was thinking simple. Like, simple terms for a vague patent, so I typed in "baby sling patent" and I found the most miraculous website... http://www.patentstorm.us/! Granted, it probably has all the same information as the USPTO website, but the way they organize it is so much easier for me to navigate. Plus, their image files actually work in IE 7 (shout out to Bill Gates)!

So, I was able to do a concise search on my item, determine the world knows not what will befall it when my sling goes to market, and take some serious pointers on writing my own patent. Yes, folks, that's what I said... I wrote my own patent. Vaguely, but in detail. :)