RE: ME AND MY BRIGHT IDEA
I have filed for a few patents for hunting related items, and for turbo related things for cars. I can tell you that they are very costly to do with legal fee's, filing fee's, searches required by the US Patent office, especially not knowing if your idea will be approved by the US Patent Examiners and your money will be recouped. The first thing I would tell you to is contact a local Patent lawyer and go for a counciltation about your idea to get a better idea of how the process works. One word of advice is have a local patent attorney help you and dont go with one of the online companies that file for you. Good luck with your idea!
Oh yeah, and Jim is right about the patents outside the US where most things get manufactured because of cost. Its much cheaper to have things manufactured in China obviously, but that also can bite you in the rear end later on.