A patent is a grant from the US Department of Commerce via the US Patent & Trademark Office (PTO) which allows an inventor to exclude others from making, using or selling the invention for a period of time in the US and it's possessions and territories.

Sure you can sell your idea without a patent, but if it becomes successful and others take note of it, say from ads on tv, magazines or newspapers, what's to stop them from copying your success and cashing in on your hard efforts in presenting it to the marketplace? Nothing!! If you don't have any rights to your idea then anyone can copy your success with no compensation due to you, the originator. Also, if you just go out and sell an idea without, say a patent search or a patent, you could, even if not done on purpose, but from sheer ignorance of an existing product similar to yours, the patent owner of that invention will enforce his rights to exclude you and others from further sales, use and manufacturer. You risk also being sued for patent infringement by the rightful party. That is why blindly selling an idea that you think is yours, and yours alone may not be the case at all. Check the market, do a patent search or have one conducted by a qualified, experienced searcher such as STAR RESEARCH COMPANY and then protect your idea with patents, copyrights and trade marks as appropriate. Contact a patent attorney, patent agent, again STAR RESEARCH COMPANY has an experienced team of patent attorneys and patent agents that can assist you in legal matters.
 

The parts of a patent application are the specification, the drawings and the claims.
The specification is the written description of the invention fully teaching how to make and use the invention without any undue experimention, ie. fully enabling.
The drawings, when required for understanding of the invention or when requested by the patent examiner, depicts the invention. These drawings do not have dimensions nor are they shop drawings, ie. they are not production drawings. Patent drawings are specially prepared, to exacting patent drawing standards set forth by the patent office which specifies paper size, character size and characteristics and shading. STAR RESEARCH COMPANY has qualified professional patent drafters, and designers who provide clients patent and design drawings to PTO standards at a reasonable cost.

The specification ends with the claims..ie. the invention. That is, the claims are what the inventor perceives to be his/her invention. Roughly 50% of patent application drafting by our legal associates is expended in preparing claims that adequately protect the invention. Claim drafting is a specialized art that must be learned after many years of patent practice. It is not recommended that the uninitiated novice inventor attempt to prepare a patent application alone, without having it reviewed by a patent practioner. We can assist inventors in referring them to our associates for all of their patent protection and engineering and patent drawing requirements.

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