This is a question I hear quite a bit. And it is an important one. After all, pursuing and obtaining a patent on your invention can cost well over ten thousand dollars by the time it is all said and done. You need to know what the expenditure is getting you.
Unfortunately, it is not a question easily answered in a blog post. And the answers as they apply to others may not apply to equally to you. I discuss some basics here but you are advised to seek counsel from one of our patent attorneys concerning your specific situation.
To help the answer the question, there are a few additional questions you should consider. How potentially valuable is you invention/idea? Do you intend to make money of off your invention and if so, how much? Are you willing and able to invest the money, time and effort to make a success of your invention? Do you want to license/sell you invention to a company and receive revenue from them?
If the improvement offered by your invention over what is currently available is not significant enough to compel a consumer to purchase your product or service over others currently available, than obtaining a patent probably does not make sense. If the market for your invention is small, the risk that someone will copy you is reduced possibly obviating the need for a patent.
Perhaps you have no desire to make money on your invention; however, the mere fact that you are reading this article in this blog likely indicates otherwise. Nevertheless, the primary reason for obtaining a patent is to maximize the value of an invention. I suppose one could what a patent so he/she could impress others at cocktail parties but there are other forms of braggadocio that can be obtained more economically.
If you don’t have the money to pursue the patent (typically thousands of dollars), than a patent probably isn’t for you. Sure there are ways to reduce the cost of obtaining a patent, such as doing work yourself, but you get what you pay for. What is the old cliché: a penny wise and a pound foolish?
A patent is a just a tool. By itself it will never make you any money. Unless you are willing to spend both time and money promoting your invention than you probably shouldn’t bother. Put another way, a hammer doesn’t drive nails unless you swing it. If you’re hoping that merely getting the patent will cause riches to just roll in, you have probably seen too many TV commercials featuring a caveman.
Finally, if you hope to sell your invention to a large company and have them make and sell the product and pay you a portion of the earnings, it doesn’t happen very often. BUT it nearly never happens unless you have protected your invention usually with a patent. Simply, why would a company pay you for your invention if they could just make and sell the product without paying you?
Feel free to call us and set up a free initial consultation. We can discuss your specific situation to determine whether patenting you invention makes sense for you.
