How can you get a patent?

I have an idea for a bumper sticker. How can I get a patent on it and get it mass produced with royalties paid

• I would like to get a company to take a look at the bumper sticker and tell me if they would mass produce it for me and sign a contract to pay royalties to me as long as it sells well. Any ideas?? How do I go about this??

• Answer:

  I think you're question is slightly off, but I can see what you're getting at. Firstly, you already own the copyright for the sticker, if you have created a version of it somewhere (assuming you're in the US). You can store a copy somewhere that indicates the date of its creation, in case. You could trademark the design too. This (as the poster said) is long and relatively expensive. You would not be able to patent it, because it isn't an invention. Copyright covers you, but the problem is enforcement. Even if you had a trademark, if some reasonable size company stole it, and brought their shamcy lawyers to defend themselves, you'd have a hard time stumping up the cash to fight the case. So I wouldn't worry about the trademark. The best thing you can do is to start making money from it. Nobody will mass produce it and pay you royalties for it. Your best shot is to get it printed yourself (which costs very little - you could easily do that with the money you save from not trademarking). And then find someone to distribute it. Start distributing yourself: talk to auto-shops, local businesses, set up a website, try to build some sales. And save the money you make from the first batch to print a second batch - rinse and repeat. It is a sad, and poorly understood, fact that as far as inventions go ideas are worth almost nothing. Ideas really are very cheap. It is the ability to execute them that separates you from the pack and gives you a shot at success.