Bureaucracy

So here I am, staring at 19 pages of patent application text, plus 14 pages of patent application drawings, plus the requisite 5 cover pages of fill-in-the-blank forms, ready to write my check for $500 to attempt to protect the intellectual property that is the PaceWheel.

All of this work and my $500 will allow me to sell my product with the phrase "patent pending" on the side, but I won't know if my patent is approved for 18 months. In fact, I might not know anything except that the patent application has been received until then. Hopefully, no one else also invented the pacewheel concept and has their application waiting in line while I'm filing for protection.

BTW, the first print run of PaceWheels will be in my hands today!