Hello everyone. I am a stay at home mom and i just recently created a game board for my kids to enhance the use of their vocabularies. It is very educational and I believe lots of parents will love it for their kids. Even adults can play it.

I searched online using google patent search, ebay, amazon, toy stores, also went to department stores and did not see anything like my idea/invention. So now I don't know what to do. How will I know if my search is accurate? Who do i trust? I don't have enough money and savings to hire an atty to do the patent or go to a company like invention home asking me $399 for a patent seach + more where on their dvd they said no upfront fee. I made a mistake of faxing my idea to invention home and hearing all this negative stuff now about them, I am afraid they might use it to get a patent first.

Should I do the patent myself or look for a company that can license it? What's the best thing to do?

Please help. Thank you.