Inventing things. (small business, interest, how to, market)

[skoe]

Have any of you ever invented anything and sold it? My son is determined to invent things. He is always coming to me with drawings and asking me how to become an inventor. He does have some pretty cool ideas but I have no idea how to go about this one. Anyone?

[Sgoldie]

NASA has a program for small businesses in which the engineers there will help you put an invention together, research it, find manufacturers and marketing. If I were your son, I'd look into that program. Maybe he could get an intership with them or at the very least pick up a lot of excellent information.

[BIGJets]

I myself have wondered this. I went as far as calling one of those inventor assistance schemes a few years ago. Please be careful before you use one. I left a message, and I received a call back one evening. The guy would not explain the procedure at all. He was only interested in the idea. I never told him and he got angry and hung up the phone on me.

[skoe]

Hey, thanks for the advice you guys. I was worried about the scam thing. We will be sure to watch out for those!

[TXboomerang]

Inventing something is sometimes easier thant getting the patent. There are a lot of books for inventors about getting patents on ideas, but it isn't cheap to patent something and it is very time consuming. I would suggest getting a book about the process from Nolo books, they are very informative and easy to follow compared to other books I've looked at:

http://www.nolo.com/resource.cfm/cat...57E4E/310/101/