I don't know the answer to that, but the "modified" part could mean trouble if you don't handle it properly.

If you use any part of any existing (current) patented design and modify it, you have to get permission from the owner of the patent for the part that they already have covered. You can't modify something and say it's unique.

As a rough explanation: If you take someone else's design and change the color or the size or the material or the handle or the logo, it's still their design. The acid test is setting both the original and the copy in front of a patent judge, and the judge asks himself if the copy is a ripoff of the original.

But if it's unique, I "heard" that a "patent pending" is cheaper than a patent. A friend of mine got his patent last year, and it cost him about $40,000.

Sue