Patent Strategy
Patents Give You Defensible Space in Your Market
A well crafted patent portfolio can give you a defensible space in the marketplace. A good portfolio will cover the key elements of your current products, plus your next several generations of products. A solid, defensible space in the marketplace will greatly increase your business opportunities. Having “patent pending” on your products and advertising sends…
Read MoreLicensing Patents as Part of Your Overall Patent Strategy
Outbound licensing is one option with a good patent portfolio. One or more patents can be developed for a licensing strategy in conjunction with or separate from a company’s main product. There are some technologies that are so large that one company may not have the resources to bring the technology to market or where the…
Read MoreDefensive Patent Strategies
Patents and patent applications are very effective marketing tools and deterrents to competitors. When a patent application is filed, a product may be properly marked as “patent pending.” This marking serves two very important functions. In a general marking sense, the “patent pending” or “patented” markings indicate to consumers that the product is unique and cannot…
Read MorePatents Help Sell Your Company
When building a patent portfolio with the intent to sell a company, the main audience is not potential infringers, but the acquiring company. Depending on the situation, the acquiring company may have any of several different reasons for the acquisition. For example, the acquiring company may be looking to add an existing product to its product…
Read MoreDrafting Patents for Licensing
Patents that are intended for licensing have a distinctively different feel to them and a different method of drafting than patents that protect a specific product line. Here, our intent is to protect an idea that may potentially be more valuable at the end of the patent life and may be used in ways that…
Read MoreProtecting a Product With Patents
Most companies get patent protection to protect a product. This is the first line of defense and is the most simplistic manner to use patents. In this case, the business interest is two fold. The primary goal is to prevent competitors from directly infringing the product going out the door and the secondary goal is to set…
Read MorePatent Portfolio Development vs. Just Getting a Patent
Most patents are a waste of money. Why is it that Apple and Samsung each have many thousands of patents, but when they start a patent war with each other over, they only assert a small handful of patents? For a small business with limited resources, judiciously selecting ideas for patenting can make the difference…
Read MorePatents Need to Track Your Product Strategy
If a patent has any business value, it must relate to concrete, real products that add value to people’s lives. Patents that cover hypothetical ideas and wishful thinking have no commercial value whatsoever. Whether you write patents to defend a product space, enhance your company’s value, create “trading card” assets for negotiating with competitors or…
Read MoreNever Use Equity to do a Job that Debt Can Do
Equity in your company should be valued high – after all, you have confidence in your ability to succeed. Why squander your equity when you can leverage someone else’s capital? BlueIron’s secured financing is very similar to debt: you leverage BlueIron’s capital investment with only a minimum of your own equity. BlueIron’s parallel investment in your company…
Read MoreSpend Your Capital on Growing Your Business
The most common refrain of a startup company is that “we can’t afford a patent attorney”. With BlueIron, you don’t have to. BlueIron builds out a professionally curated and managed patent portfolio for you while preserving your capital. BlueIron typically invests more than $40,000 per patent, which includes thorough searches and expediting the patents through…
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