All a patent does is give you the right to sue someone in a civil action at some future date in a ridiculously costly, extremely drawn-out and easily circumvented legal process. Less than one patent in a hundred ever shows a positive cash flow. You get better odds gambling your money away. To bust your patent, all a firm has to do is to find someone somewhere who says it was reasonably obvious to a 'practioner in the field'. Big industry does not buy ideas or patents.
Many larger corporations reject any outside invention submissions.
Publish all your ideas in a major magazine. Try to set up a royalty agreement in the five per cent range with a small to medium-sized firm able to market and distribute your invention. The one and only defence against getting ripped off in any royalty set-up is the expectation that you will be delivering new and better ideas in the future. Rommy Revson, creator of a patented fabric hair band called Scunci, has found a clever strategy for protecting her patent. When large companies began marketing look-alike products, she made several lawyers her partners, and told them she would give them a percentage of her income if they succeeded in enforcing her patent.