[Zeke]

A copyright and a trademark can prevent anyone from marketing a product similar to yours in any kind of similar packaging and with any kind of similar advertising. These 2 items are enforceable more quickly and more cheaply.

By the time you pursue a patent infringement, the product will be either dead or the other guy will have his version on the market much more successfully than you. Patents have their place, for sure, but to move on the market quickly, you only need the simple protection.

You think the guy that sold the Pet Rock bothered with a patent? Patent a rock?

I don't know what the OP's inventions are, but he'll go nowhere unless he has a prototype in a box or package ready to sell at the trade show. I have taken a product from design, prototype, production, marketing and eventually to retail where I made a living with it.

I would not ever do this again. I would take the prototype to the biggest and best match to market the product en mass.

billy, you may have some patents, but what are you selling today? I'm not being critical, I'm interested in any success story and so is the OP. If you are getting royalties, you made my point in spades.