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Patents – Waste of time or worth the money? |
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There are four major categories of intellectual property (IP): Patents, copyrights, trademarks and trade secrets. Each plays a role in building value in your products. Clint has experience in all four areas of IP. He can help you reduce intellectual property expenses by doing some of the layman level work, and then turning it over to attorneys when their services are needed. In the world of IP, patents are a particular source of controversy and consternation. Patents can be expensive to obtain, and they may or may not add value to your company. There are very experienced people who will tell you that patents are usually a waste of time and money and you shouldn’t bother with them. There are equally experienced people who will swear by the value of patents and will advise you to build a wall of patents around every product you develop. These opposing viewpoints can pose a real dilemma for inventors and product developers. And asking a patent attorney if you should spend money obtaining patents is a bit like asking the IRS for advice on how much you should pay in taxes. |
So who is right? Are patents a wall of protection that will let you rake in profits? Or are they just a black hole for money? One hard and honest fact about patents is that most of them never end up making money for the inventors or owners of the patents. But there are patents for great new ideas that have become gold mines for the inventors. And in the right circumstances the “wall of patents” strategy does provide meaningful protection. If your invention is a fundamentally new idea that is a significant improvement over existing technology, then it's probably worthwhile to pursue patent protection. If you have minor improvements on existing technology, it might not be worthwhile to spend money on patents. On the Case Studies page, clink on the link to Better Algorithm for an example of how a patent turned a new idea into a fortune for the inventor. If you have a new product idea and you would like an unbiased opinion of the merits of the idea, or would like comments on patent strategy, please call or email Clint to see if he can help. |
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O'Conner Product Management |
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Phone: 1-760-942-6351 |
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