Patent Basics
Should I Get A Patent Before Talking To Customers?
No. As an investor in patents, I am willing to wait for the Second Patent. BTW, if you need to tell someone your invention when you are doing customer discovery, you are doing it wrong. In my business of financing patents for startup companies, I am usually willing to pass on the First Patent for…
Read MoreHow Much Does It Cost To File A Patent?
How much does it cost to file a patent? The US average is about $12k, but the total cost of a patent is closer to $60k. Have you been quoted much less? There are plenty of patent attorneys who quote much, much less than $12,000 to draft a patent application. But beware. One of the…
Read MorePatent Enforcement Insurance Makes Your Company Valuable
Why should I get a patent? I don’t have enough money to enforce it. Many startup companies don’t bother with patents because they don’t think they can enforce them. And they are right. A patent lawsuit can be very expensive, and the game of enforcement is really a big game of chicken: both sides are…
Read MoreWhat Does A Quality Patent Look Like?
What does a quality patent look like? We evaluate patents every day. We underwrite investments in intellectual property, either for financing patents before they are written or for providing loans against patents that already exist. After doing this for a long time, there are certain elements that we evaluate every time we pick up a…
Read MoreHow Much Do Patent Attorneys Charge
The average patent cost about $60,000, and most of that goes to your patent attorney. How much do patent attorneys charge? Be prepared to pay them about $45,000 through the entire process. The patent process involves two major phases. Patent “preparation” is when the patent is originally drafted and filed with the patent office, and…
Read MoreAverage Patent Cost
How much does the average patent cost? The US average is about $60,000. The average patent cost about $60,000. The patent process involves two major phases. Patent “preparation” is when the patent is originally drafted and filed with the patent office, and patent “prosecution” is the back and forth that happens with the examiner. Typically,…
Read MoreWhy IoT Patents are Hot
What are the hottest patents? IoT patents. Most people do not realize that there is an extensive, highly developed secondary market for patents. This market runs under the radar for the most part, with occasional news stories about “patent trolls”. However, it is very sophisticated, well financed, and trades tens of billions of dollars of…
Read MorePatents Multiply Your Investment in a Company
Note: this is an excerpt from my book “Investing In Patents.” Patents Multiply Your Investment Patents are used to defend, but also to multiply an investment in technology. In the first case, companies use their patent assets to preserve an investment. In the second case – and this is the most powerful one – patents…
Read MorePatents Are Similar to Stock Options
Patents are similar to out-of-the-money stock options. Patents are an inherently risky investment and have lots of similarities to options trading. This is because they have value only when the market comes to them. At the time you purchase an option – and at the time you create a patent – you must place a…
Read MoreBlueIron Skewers Traditional Patent Attorney Role with Unique Investment Model
BlueIron IP skewers traditional patent attorney role with unique investment model FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Jan 18, 2016 LOVELAND – Protecting a startup’s intellectual property is one of the most important milestones for any new tech-based business and one of the biggest factors for success, but conventional patent attorneys can make it a costly and confusing…
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