I have a "million dollar" kitchen gadget idea

I’ve sketched out a design for a self-cleaning garlic press that actually works without leaving half the clove behind. I want to protect the idea before I try to sell it to a big company like OXO. I keep seeing ads for companies that help you package your idea for industry. Are these full-service agencies worth the investment, or should I just hire a standard patent attorney? I don't want to get ripped off before I even start.

Don't spend a dime on marketing materials until you have a working physical prototype. I used a local 3D printing service to make my first model. It cost me $50 and revealed three major design flaws I hadn't thought of. You can't sell a drawing on a napkin; you need to show that it actually functions.

I went down this road with a specialized gardening tool idea a few years ago. It is a total minefield. There are legitimate patent attorneys who do great work, and then there are invention promotion firms that promise the moon but mostly just sell you expensive brochures. Before you sign a contract with any agency that claims it will pitch your product to corporations for you, you need to do deep research on their actual success rates. I spent weeks reading through feedback sites and found https://invent-help.pissedconsumer.com/review.html to be a useful reality check. Reading about other inventors' experiences helped me understand the difference between paying for helpful legal protection versus paying for empty marketing hype.