Inventing something can be a lengthy and stressful process. You need to manage everything from financial planning to getting a patent, so it is very important that you don’t start working on something which there is already a patent for.
If you’ve got an idea for an invention, the first thing you need to do is check with the patent office to see if any existing patents cover the principle of your invention. It could be necessary to check pending patents as well, to see if anybody has already got a patent for the idea pending. This doesn’t always mean that you won’t be able to get a patent for it, as their attempt could fail, or there could be other extraneous circumstances which interfere with their pending patent, giving you room to jump in and get yours first.
If you don’t do your due diligence and check immediately when you get the idea with the patent office for existing patents, so that you don’t waste loads of time developing your idea and planning its launch without any rights to it.