Always try to put on paper what it is that you invented - precisely define your idea, its purpose, limitations and target audience. If you cannot precisely define your idea, then this means that you should take a step back, re-analyze your thinking and simplify things. The most common error that people make at this stage is over-complicating their idea. A quick example will clarify this point:

Case Study 1

John K. has an idea on how to improve Automatic Knife Mechanism. While laboring hard on his invention, John K. produces technical drawings and decides that his future product will benefit from the addition of extra items: a scissor and a screw driver. However, the addition of these items makes the final product larger and heavier. In order to make knife lighter, John K. goes back to the drawing board: he compromises his original, Automatic Push/Pull mechanism design in attempt to accommodate unnecessary extra features that have nothing to do with his unique design. By taking away features from his original design, John K. makes his final design very pedestrian and it lacks in originality.

In the final analysis, John K. should have stopped right before making any changes to his original Automatic Knife Mechanism and asked himself the following: am I better off with the original mechanism or with pedestrian mechanism which has extra features? Are the extra features even necessary?

The above example clearly illustrates the following: focus on your original idea and ignore additional, superfluous features that might muddle your vision. Extra features will come into play later, once you clearly described and shaped your invention.

Step 2 - Determine if your idea is unique (or Exploratory Stage)

Once you've documented your idea, you should start thinking about the following - how unique is my idea? In order to answer these questions, you will have to do some legwork and hit your local library and internet. Unless you allocated a large amount of your budget to Patent Lawyers, who will do the research for you, you will be better off doing initial research by yourself. Why? Because you may discover during your exploratory searches that your design is not unique and save yourself from paying Big Lawyer fees. A note of caution - don't get discouraged if you determine that the idea similar to yours already exists and already patented. The fact that someone came to the similar conclusions as you, just a little bit earlier is good - you have a competition! Competition is good, competition is healthy! Carefully examine competing product, even take it apart, if necessary. Determine what differentiates your idea from competitor's, its limitations and how successful was another person (or a company) with marketing it. As you can see, you can actually learn from mistakes of others, avoid their mistakes and forge ahead fully aware of competition and their limitations.

A very good resource in this area is Google's Patent Search Website

Another resource, of course, is US Patent And Trademark Office Website By searching these sites you will have a better understanding where you stand in terms of uniqueness of your idea.