There is nothing inexpensive about patents–they are not cheap to obtain, keep active, or assert. Despite this, when patents are done right, they are a very valuable asset and a great investment, often realizing a return of at least ten times on the investment.
A sizable patent ROI is not instantaneous, though. For many companies, it can be five or more years from their first expenditure on patents until they realize actual monetary value from them. Typically, the more disruptive the technology and the larger the market, the longer this timeline becomes.
It would be nice if you could wait until you’re selling a product and making money before you have to spend anything on patents…unfortunately, patent law doesn’t work this way. In reality, there is a short time frame (e.g., 0 to 1 year) from the time you make your technology public to patent it, or you lose the right to do so.
This is because almost anything you do to obtain interest in your product by third parties could constitute a public disclosure. There’s a ton of information packed into this statement that we’ll address in other articles. For now, the main point is that you have to patent your technology before you go public with it or you will use your right to patent it. If you lose the right to protect it, you are donating your technology to the world…including your competitors.
This is where Smart Patent Spend comes in. In general, it’s making sure that every dollar spent on patents is maximizing patent value and ROI. This is especially important for pre-revenue companies that are developing their fundamental technology with very tight budgets. For such companies, Smart Patent Spend figures out how to patent protect their fundamental technology for as inexpensive as possible. As companies evolve, Smart Patent Spend evolves as well, to ensure that from day one until they exit (and beyond) patent value and ROI are maximized.
If you’d like more information on Smart Patent Spend, read some of our other articles and/or send me a note.
*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.
