<p>The best protection would be to get a patent on your new design. That would stop anyone else from copying or even using it without your permission. The problem is that, to do a patent right, it costs something like 8k-10k, depending on your technology. A cheaper patent might have mistakes in it that would make it far less useful.</p><p> </p><p>Without that, you could try to have a contract where you ask potential buyers to agree not to share or use the idea before you show it to them. That sort of confidentiality agreement is hard to get signed though; people don't want to promise confidentiality and have legal risk when they don't even know what it is that you are going to show them. Sometimes, if you have a relationship with the other side already, it works; but a call out of the blue from someone who says "i have a great idea" but you have to sign a document before you see it -- well, that typically doesn't fly, unfortunately.</p><p> </p><p>So, unfortunately, it's very hard to protect an unsolicited idea and bring it to relevant companies without either a prior relationship, a reputation that gets you over the above hurdles, or a patent.</p><p> </p><p>Sorry. (Good luck.) </p>

Those are ways to make a prototype, but they don't protect you against copying. So sure, you can hire someone to make a prototype, and you can buy the item and mess with it; but if you then show that to someone else, you are at risk that they can copy you. That risks goes away only if you patent or have a contract.

That said, having a prototype does help prove *when* you invented and that you really did invent; and that proof would help you later when you try to get a patent. Also, having a prototype might help you get attention from would-be buyers, and help you make sure your idea really works. So I don't mean to poo-poo the idea of a prototype; I just want to make sure you know that that doesn't protect you from copying necessarily.

Hope that helps.

Right. When you take the prototype to a potential buyer, you'd try for a non-disclosure agreement of some sort, and then show them the prototype. As I said, though, most companies are reluctant to sign non-disclosure agreements, especially with people they don't already know.