Things you can do your self:

It helps to do some research on existing patents yourself to keep costs down. Once you have a working design concept with drawings you are in a position to pursue a patent. You can research other existing patents and compare to your idea at the USPTO . To keep costs down until you are ready to file a patent, Take your sketch of you idea, summary and description and then sign and date it and send it to yourself via certified mail. Don’t open it so you can offer it as proof that you came up with the idea and the timeframe that you did. That offers some protection in case you patent it later and someone infringes on it.

If your idea is pretty simple you can apply for a provisional, utility or design patent yourself on legalzoom yourself.

If you decide you want to work with a
Intellectual property attorney:

Be careful during this stage. There are good patent attorneys out there but there are also ones that will tell you how great you idea is in order to get you to spend money with them. Don’t relay on their marketability advice. We have worked with various attorney and have an approved list to work with. Provide the information to access the product and the patent needs to receive a cost estimate.