(10) Patent Filing Underway

Finally, after exerting some Project Management levers (i.e., please get me a draft by COB Friday, so I can review and approve), the patent lawyer is engaged in drafting the Patent Filing. It's surprising how clear YOU think your provision patent and notes were, and how NOT clear they are to a complete outsider. Had a good discussion of all the elements of the claim, mostly around my need to have as broad possible claims, vs. his reluctance to put too much in there that wasn't actually supported by specific drawings, use or basically information allowing one to actually build the item.

Meanwhile, the 5 individual parts of the invention are beginning to slowly converge; a few hopefully get shipped to me this week to inspect/test, and a couple should hopefully be ready to 'rapid-prototype'. I'm spending probably too much time on the accessories and safety elements, vs. the underlying invention (which is actually ready to produce and prototype); but I think my target market of parents would not appreciate the invention as much without the accessories. Also, I'd probably be at a more disadvantageous position from a product liability perspective without the accessories - this product liability issue is going to be a difficult road, I expect. There will be many design changes, marketing statements, tests and warning labels involved with the eventual product, to make sure I'm covered. To that end, I think I'm ready to be an 'LLC'; but I hesitate to do that, until I get at least a little justification and acceptance from testing the early prototypes (to see if they will actually sell).