The answer depends on the answer to these questions:
- Are you, or will you be, in a large total available market (TAM)?
- Do you have a disruptive technology?
- Yes or no: There are no encumbrances on your technology?
- You are commercializing your technology but not yet selling it?
- Do you, or will you, have viable competition?
- Does your technology have a lifespan of five years or more?
- Is your technology a market differentiator; i.e., your technology is why a customer would buy your product instead of a competitors’ product, even a well-established competitor?
- Is your technology applicable to multiple products?
- Is your technology expandable to new versions, new generations?
If you answered “yes” to all of the questions: Patents will add significant value to your company and the expense is definitely worth it.
If you answered “no” to all of the questions: You don’t need patents and spending any money on patents is not worth it.
If you answered some “yes” and some “no,” then the answer lies with the potential value that patents could bring to your business. From a value perspective, patents are business tools that have a variety of uses (e.g., marketing, collateral, asset, defensive, and/or offensive). Each use has its own value to the business and the value of the uses is cumulative. I discuss the business uses of patents and their respective values in other articles.
**Please note that this article is not legal advice; it is not a legal opinion; nor should you rely on it as legal advice or as a legal opinion. This article merely expresses the author’s general thoughts on a topic regarding the business of patents. Nothing in this article establishes any form of an attorney-client relationship between you, the reader, and the author of this article.
