Patent Strategy
So You Have A Patent? Now What?
For many entrepreneurs, life goes on. The nasty secret is that now that they have this new asset, they don’t know what to do with it. They spent a lot of money, time, and energy getting the patent, but struggle with the value of it.
Read MoreWhy Startup Patents Are Doomed From The Start
Patents for small companies are fundamentally different from patents for large companies. The decisions made – and skills needed – to develop the two are very different. There are several problems facing a startup company when getting patents. The biggest problem: the skillset needed for a startup’s patents is not practiced in the conventional law…
Read MoreBlueIron is Changing the Legal Industry
BlueIron was formed in response to a weakness in the way patents are prepared. My personal experience was that I needed a patent attorney’s advice and experience – and I paid for it – but he had continually refused to give it to me. It wasn’t until after I took the patent bar and began…
Read MoreDouble the Value of Your Patents – All You Need is the Right NDA
The right IP agreements play a huge role in how valuable your patents will be over time. One of the dirty secrets of coworking spaces, startup accelerators, incubators, and other collaborative environments is that the mere act of collaborating can devalue your intellectual property. The typical scenario is when two coworkers from different companies collaborate…
Read MoreLoans for Your Patents
Yes, you can borrow against your patents. BlueIron can provide loans of $2 to 50M or more using only your patents as collateral. Your company is based on your creative ideas, which you have protected with your patents. But if those patents have value, can I loan against them? Yes, you can! BlueIron has an…
Read MoreInvestment Grade Patents Do Not Have “Broad Claims”
Broad patents can hurt you. Inventors like to think that their patents are “broad” and somehow that is good. It is not. The risks with broad patents are that they are more easily invalidated, but it is also a sales pitch that patent attorneys use to make more money. Narrow patents are bad, too. Narrow…
Read MoreFinancing Patents Is Actually CHEAPER Than Paying a Patent Attorney
Financing patents through BlueIron is actually cheaper than paying as you go with a conventional patent attorney. This is because the cost of capital for startup companies is so high. Pepperdine’s business school publishes the annual Private Capital Markets Report, which shows that the average cost of capital for Angel or VC funded companies in…
Read MoreShould 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 MoreShould I File A Provisional Patent Application?
You should never file a provisional patent application. Ever. In every case, a small company or independent inventor is better off by filing a complete, well-written, non-provisional patent application. One of the biggest hoaxes in the patent community is that provisional patent applications are a good thing. They are not. (You can learn more at…
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 More