starting a line, need to prototype

Answer 1

First of all, I hope I read this wrong, that your husband is not taking the patent bar just to save you money. If an idea is worth patenting, it needs someone experienced to write, and if need be prosecute the patents. Minor errors, such as might be made until one gains experience can render your patent pretty worthless. (Everyone needs a start, and thats why most patent agents and attorneys work for someone to gain experience before stricking out on their own). Again I hope I misread that,

Next, the most common reason for failure, is not IP theft, but a failure to take any action. IP is usually only a small part of a successful product or idea, where as superior marketing plays a huge role. This is not to dispell patents, as they can be pretty useful, but that its a common misperception that they are key. I think its around 2% of patents that every make any money, and of those, its a lot less that even cover the costs of the patent.

Next, unless you live in China, or plan to live there for a while, do not even think of sending initial production there, or anywhere offshore. You need to be right there for manufacturing. Far too many great ideas crashed and burned when they were thrown over the ocean, and then when they come back, they dont work as intended. Don't get me wrong, volume production offshore is a great thing, but you need experience in doing so, its not for the first time out, and even then, one can run into trouble. Granted you may not like the reduced margin of having something made locally, but its a whole lot better to get 1000 units built with a 99% success rate, than the client I worked with last summer who sent the product over the sea, and got 876 bad units out of 1000. He paid a small fortune to have them rebuilt in the US, and had he not had substantial cash reserves, he would have been bankrupt. This was no fault of the Chinese manufacturer either. They built exactly what was specified in the prints... but the guy never ran a pilot run to make sure the prints were good for manufacturing before he sent them offshore.

As far as finding someone... referrals by someone you know and trust personally, ideally who has no financial incentive. There are many fine manufacturers in China, who will take good care of your product, but a few bad guys make it hard to find a good one.

So going forward, get involved in a local inventors group.. a real group, not just a bunch of folks who are enthusiastic, but a group which has folks who have some level of success. Assuming you are in the US, start our with your local SCORE or economic development office. These folks are full of resources, but you need to be professional in your approach.