Hi Bryan,
A familiar problem for my glass business and some of the clients of my Steve Parker ICD business, including some inventors I have worked with. Overall the best way is to build in enough features into your product that will also enable you and others to write suitable specifications that can help to protect. We also make sure everything possible is signed and dated etc. Frankly if you are small, even if you patented or trademarked legally, you may not have the funds to fight challenges, so my advice is get selling and marketing as many as you can - you could then always sell your design to a company later. Hope this helps.   Steve    www.steveparkericd.com

Patenting and registration may not work without the proper marketing - All inventors have to be sales people as well to be able to earn. the best way is to find yourself an investor that believes your design works and is willing to invest on selling those at large volumes.