re: Any of you Baws ever invent something and had it patented?

Don't bang you head. Start working on it. Document everything, build a prototype, test, refine, build more, work out all the bugs, build more, and start selling them. When you get an order from a customer, it's the best feeling in the world, I kid you not.

I've got one other in the hopper, in a totally different field. I hope to get it going in the next 5 years. If it works it'll be huge.

I did have two others which were interesting.

The first was a 2mW wind turbine, with hydraulics up top driving a generator at ground level, which would have cut the weight at the top of the mast by over 50%. But Mitsubishi had patented it just 6 months earlier.

The other was basically an opposite phase sound generator for a submarine (think of a REALLY big Bose noise canceling headphone), that would mask the sound of the boat. As I did my research (which wasn't easy), it turns out DARPA already had dibs on it..!

You can buy that on amazon for $6

My FIL invented, what would become, Line-X. He created other polymers, but that one was the most popular.

Worked with a guy that was one of the managers of the Atlanta strip(Gold Club) that John Gotti Jr got in trouble with. He invented a dido that came(using warmed saline). He had a S500 with a vanity plate “itcomes”.

Ketchup and mustard 8n the same jar.

I can recommend someone that will get the job done without ridiculous white shoe prices.

The downvote was a mistake. Sorry about that.

That's not even funny....

I have worked with many people on patents. Here are several things you should know
1. 95% of all patents are never used commercially and 98% of all patents never return a profit
2. A patent issued and a defensible patent are two different things, meaning your patent can be so narrow that it makes it super easy to knock off.
3. A patent is not a marketing tool, meaning buyers are not searching the patent archives to find solutions.
4. If you don’t have the money to defend your patent it’s not really worth much, a patent is just the right to sue someone else for making a similar product.
5. If you are a small company and you make a successful product and get it manufactured in China, the Chinese company will more than likely start making it for anyone who asks.
In general if you are looking to produce a direct to consumer product you should be willing to put just as much money into marketing and branding as in to design, patenting and prototyping.

My great, great Grandfather actually invented the toilet many moons ago..however, he didn't get credit for it. Someone came along later and put a hole in it and they got the credit.