About

BlueIron addresses a huge need in the patent world: the need for honest business advice about IP protection.

Most people hire a patent attorney thinking that they will somehow be “protected,” but they have that sneaking suspicion that something isn’t right.

A patent attorney is a hired gun. They sell patents to anyone who wants one, and they get paid upfront. Their economic incentive is to write patents for anyone and for anything, no matter how awful the invention is.

On top of that, the patent attorney takes no risk and is not responsible if the patent fails to generate revenue – or even if the patent gets shot down in court. All that risk is on the client who asked for the service in the beginning.

BlueIron was created to solve this problem.

BlueIron puts “skin in the game” when it comes to patents

We finance patents, which means we get paid *after* the patent issues, not before. Because we have a financing relationship, BlueIron might get stuck with the patents. Consequently, we only do patents that have real value.

Our collateral for the financing is our only asset, so our sole focus is making sure the patents have value.

I got into the patent business because I was unhappy with how my patent attorney “helped” me. I was so disappointed in the “advice” I got that I took the patent bar, became a patent agent, then worked for 3 years at a law firm to “learn the trade.”

I went to law school, opened up a solo practice, and wrote hundreds of patent applications for companies big and small, where I got to hone my craft as the “hired gun” outside counsel.

I had the opportunity to join a startup company and become “inhouse” counsel, where my responsibility was to create value through our IP portfolio, not just grind out endless patent applications.

BlueIron puts all that experience together so we have “skin in the game.” We provide a loan for every patent application, where the loan uses the patent application as collateral. We understand that 95% of all patents are worthless, so we are very deliberate about which patents we file and the strategies we use.

We also provide patent insurance and loans using patents as collateral, which compliment our financing of the patent applications. Patent enforcement insurance is pre-paid legal fees to go after competitors who infringe your patent, and patent defense insurance handled in-bound lawsuits from competitors or patent trolls. We can also do $2-50M loans using IP as collateral.

Our clients range from startups to publicly traded companies, but we only work with companies who are bringing products to market. We do not work with independent inventors or companies whose main goal is licensing.

A patent has no value unless people are buying the patented product. If we use a patent as collateral, we need a company to increase the patent value by bringing the product to market.

About Russ Krajec

Russ Krajec is an author, inventor, angel investor, podcast host, and patent attorney. After a 13 year career as an engineer, Russ switched to patent law to “reverse engineer” the patent system to create good patents. 20 years later, he has seen the deep, dark underbelly of the patent system.

Russ’s books “Investing In Patents” and the soon-to-be-released “Startup IP Strategy” describe the systematic process for due diligence on inventions, as well as a comprehensive framework for a startup’s IP strategy. The podcast “Patent Myths” tackles many complex IP issues, simplifying them into meaningful strategies for today’s entrepreneurs.

This is a message of hope and encouragement. Armed with a few simple tools, entrepreneurs can build their businesses with the comfort that they have a good strategy in hand.

Russ has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, as well as a JD from Denver University. Russ has been on Intellectual Asset Magazine’s Top 300 Patent Strategists for several years running and is a Certified Patent Valuation Analyst.

You can schedule a time to talk with Russ here: