Patent the idea? Do I have to have the product or just the idea?

Answer 1

An idea is not good enough, you need to have a plan to implement your idea.

Like, idea is "fly to the moon in 4 hours", plan is you have some idea of how to build a machine to travel very fast, etc. So you cannot patent the idea to fly to the moon in 4 hours, but you can patent your invention of a very fast traveling machine.

Again, you dont need a prototype, or a working model. For example, you have the way of building a fast traveling machine, but you know that it will overheat, or traveling so fast will kill any living animal inside the machine, etc, it is still OK, that will be the invention for somebody else to handle.

The 'plan' to build your invention, must be good enough for the average people of the trade can take your patent application and build the machine. That is, in simple English, your patent application should be detail and simple enough for a technician to build your invention according to your patent application.

So, you dont need a manufacture company to build a prototype or product, but a patent attorney to discuss with you about your idea.

Answer 2

Patents apply to inventions. If you don't have a working model of your invention, you can't get a patent, as I understand it.