I have an idea I've been trying to patent. If I had the money I would just hire an attorney but I don't have the money. $500 is a lot of money to me. $2000 is a ton of money to me. Maybe you have lived a different type of life than me and saving money has been an option for you but for me wealth creation has been a closed door. There is no reason to continue discussing this tangent.
I tried using FIVERR and that was a disaster. I tried doing it on my own and I'm starting to see how much work just drafting the claims is. It's sort of like in programming how sometimes to know anything you have to know everything.
I want a patent to protect my invention because it would be easy for existing companies to copy. After doing a weeks long patent search I am convinced my invention is novel and non-obvious but an existing company could easy beat me to the market with a good product if my invention starts picking up steam.
Yet drafting a quality patent application seems impossible to do right unless you are a practicing patent attorney. So the idea of being able to create value out of thin air is imaginary. You aren't allowed to patent an invention unless you have $20,000-$30,000 to bet. This seems wrong. Am I being dramatic? This seems like an impossible thing to accomplish at the moment.
Yes, one can definitely file ones own patent. One can also build ones own mansion. Are you interested in building your own mansion? Have you practiced building your own mansion before?
FYI, patents do not prevent someone from copying your idea. They merely give you the right to litigate. If you can’t afford a patent attorney then you can’t afford to litigate. Therefore, what is the value of your patent?
Some patents have value outside granting you the right to litigate. I’m some cases, they are a marketing tool “wow they must have great tech, it’s patented”. Sometimes it’s an asset “big Corp wants to buy me and they already have complimentary patents and they can afford to litigate. They would love to own my patent.”
I would suggest you think deeply on what your goals are and explore cost benefit of filing a patent.
FYI, if you only care about us coverage, you can file a provisional patent for about $80 and it is super informal. A provisional allows you to stake your claimed date without prosecuting the patent and spending money. It give you 18 months to figure out if you idea I’d worth patenting. But be careful, anything not covered in the provisional does not get to claim the date of provisional if added to the non-provisional filing.
Adding to that, even truly great products don’t sell themselves nowadays and that’s the reason people and companies spend millions of dollars in advertising and marketing.
You can invent a time machine but unless you can spread the word out there nobody is going to buy it or care.
I guess what I’m trying to say is: work on your product and pray that someone picks it up.
If it’s complex and super hard to reproduce chances are that people will try to get you on their side as opposed to stealing it from you.
If it’s simple then you should not worry about it because companies will copy it anyway and even if you have a patent it’s useless if you can’t defend it, in the US or overseas.
Focus on your product and trying to sell it.