Gary Storm, president of Storm Manufacturing Company, in 29 years with the fishing industry, has applied for many patents both with and without attorneys. "You don't have to hire an attorney," Storm said, "but bureaucracies don't respect individuals much. They tend to throw fewer questions and roadblocks at applications forwarded on the letterhead of a professional."

To apply for a utility patent (the most desirable kind) you need a working model of the invention and a professionally prepared blueprint showing how the various parts work together to perform whatever function makes your lure, planer board, belly boat, or other invention unique. That's the hardest part.

"It's difficult to come up with a new idea," Storm said. "Things people think are unique rarely are. They often find that their 'invention' was patented decades before, never to make a splash -- sometimes never even appearing on the market because the inventor ran out of money before he got it there."

REALITY
What if you make it to that next level? What if you actually achieve the nirvana of being patented or trademarked?

Your cash-flow problems are just beginning, along with other burdens. Continue down this road and you walk in the shoes of a pariah. Nobody wants to see you coming.

If the idea survives the patenting process, which takes 1 to 3 years, you have to be: (1) wealthy and wise enough to finance your own manufacturing and distribution, or (2) ready to beat some shoe leather looking for a "friend" in the tackle industry to take on the risks of production and distribution. The pie-in-the-sky outcome might include royalties. Don't hold your breath.

Want to do it on your own? "Tooling a die for one injection mold to manufacture a lure can cost as much as $15,000 to $20,000," patent attorney Douglas Tschida warns. "I don't care who you are, that's high-stakes poker."

Hall says to compete you need a sophisticated computer system for distribution or "you'll never be a national player." Cost? Another $10,000 to $20,000 for starters, with annual upscaling at thousands more.

Want to make new friends? Tackle and marine manufacturers will slam doors in your face and start hacking at any toes left malingering inside. That's because more than 75 percent of all new products fail after being submitted to the most rigorous marketing examinations imaginable.

Only about 1 percent of all ideas submitted even get considered for market examinations in the first place. A government-sponsored group established to help innovators estimates that less than 1 in 100 new ideas ever makes a dime. And most lose mucho dinero.

Just because it's a good idea doesn't mean it's marketable. Just because it's marketable doesn't mean you'll find somebody trustworthy enough to push the right buttons for you. Finding the right buttons doesn't mean you'll have enough capital to get it past the sharks -- corporate copycats, attorneys, industry patrons, patent counselors, and various bureaucrats.

According to the Minneapolis Public Library, 1,248 patents were issued in the United States under the heading of "Fishing, Hunting, and Vermin Destroying" between 1981 and 1989. "But some fishing patents fall under different headings," explains librarian Bill Johnston. "Fish attractants would be under chemical headings, fish finders under electronics, rod holders under marine equipment, and so on."

It was impossible to find them all, but Johnston estimated that easily thousands of patents were issued for fishing devices in the past decade. Of over 5 million patents filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, assume that tens of thousands of fishing-item patents are now on record. And the Practical Inventor's Handbook says "The volume of inventions related to fishing is on the increase."

Among thousands of new patents, how many made profits? Most inventors lose money. Some break even, and a paltry few make a pocketful of sheckles.

Continued - click on page link below.