I would recommend that you start with a provisional patent application, before disclosing any information to potential partners. A provisional application (whi

I would recommend that you start with a provisional patent application, before disclosing any information to potential partners. A provisional application (which exists only in the USA, to my knowledge) is essentially a placeholder, giving you one year to file the complete application. Since it's essentially a disclosure of the substance of the invention, you can draft it by yourself -- there are sites on-line that will file a self-drafted provisional application for as little as $200. Again, the most important purpose of the provisional application is to capture all relevant features of the invention in enough detail to prove that you are in possession of the invention -- for your lumbar support, you would probably want to talk about the shape and the physical properties (softness, hardness, elasticity) of the materials involved. If you decide that the idea is really worthwhile, you can follow up with a complete patent application (which will cost you a few thousand dollars) any time within the next year. In the mean time, you have some proof in case one of your vendors tries to misappropriate your invention for their own.