I was recently surfing elevated vacuum on the internet and ran across some pending patents on elevated vacuum components.  I am not envious of the process. Having been down that road, it is full of potholes. Yes, there are some great successes in elevated vacuum like the Harmony System, but there are a lot more patents that have never yielded enough profits to offset the expense of getting the patent.  So just tread carefully down that road.

To quote Don Lancaster, “Any involvement whatsoever with the patent system is nearly certain to result in a net loss of time, energy, money, and sanity...A patent is simply the right to sue" with absolutely no guarantee of success.

Don says, even if you are willing to blow 25% of your profits on the patent system, your idea must have a  market potential of $12,000,000 in net sales. This is based on what it costs to procure the patent and to sue to defend it. 

I worked it out for the costs of getting the patent alone without the lawsuit and asked myself, "What are the net sales that would yield a net profit more than the patent costs?"  It never pencilled out.  You can still do lots of business with your product without a patent.  You can develop it, make it, sell it, profit from it, even sell the idea to someone else and let them patent it.  Just keep good documentation of your original idea.

If you have that great, unique and profitable product, my hat is off to you, and I am proud to know a few of you who have made a lot of money on your patented product. 
But if you are like most patent owners (including me), make sure you are just doing it for the bragging rights; have fun, spend the money, and frame the patent. But don’t do the math.

Mechanical hand vacuum pumps can be used to elevate the vacuum for testing purposes in the prosthetist's office as well as by patients for applying thier prosthesis (if the socket  was designed with that in mind).

We have tried a number of pumps and by far the best is the Craftsman all metal brake bleeding pump from Sears. It is much more durable than the plastic version. Inexpensive. and easy to find at Sears. It has a good guage, and it pumps up higher than any of the other pumps. And Craftsman has a good warrantee to boot.

It is the heaviest of the hand pumps so it  may not be appropriate for patients to carry around. But if a lighter pump is preferred, I would still recommend also having the all metal pump for use in the office or at home. It is so much better.

My first absolute rejection of elevated vacuum was a recent Syme patient. I know that others have worked out well, but this man could not get past the application, fitting and removal of the liner.

He is a large 70 year old gentleman with vascular insufficiency.  In designing his prosthesis,  I had to consider that, when sitting, he is not able to bend sufficiently to touch his shoe or lower half of his Syme prosthesis (therefore a window with a sleeve ovet it was out of the question). Currently he uses a system with a window which slips into a ledge distally and fastens with a strap proximally. For elevated vacuum I decided to try a custom gel liner  which is built up proximal to the malleoli so that he can slip it into a solid outer socket and seal it with a proximal sleeve. Alas, he was unable to don the liner in the normal way, by reflecting it back on itself, due to his limited range of motion. He could apply it with lotion and it was very comfortable. But then he could not remove the liner independently.  After several liner designs and several socket designs, we are abandoning elevated vacuum for him. This does not mean that I would not fit elevated vacuum to the next Syme patient I see, but it means that it is not for everyone.