I do not have anything to submit, but, I see those ads on TV all the time.

Personally I never trusted them. I figured they would just steal your idea.

I just saw this story on LegalZoom.com I thought was interesting. Turns out it is worse than what I was thinking.

Invention Submission Companies: Scams or Valuable Services? (Link)

(Yea, it was written about 5 years ago, but, not bad knowledge to know.)

They are not in the business of stealing ideas. They are in the business of exploiting stupid people with stupid ideas.

If you ever think you have an invention, you go to a real lawyer and pay money for a patent search - only then are you reasonably protected. After that, marketing it is just like anything - you have to have existing connections or create some.

We did up a patent once for a log-look siding made out of cedar.

To get a patent expect to spend around $50,000-$100,000.

I'm not an expert in the process, but I've been involved with two patent applications and they were around $10,000 - $20,000 each, after all was said and done.

Plus three to five years to see if it was actually approved because the patent office can't afford people who are actually qualified to understand what they read.