Put Patenting Costs In Perspective

Conceptualizing and patenting new inventions is much less expensive than actually creating new products and getting them on the market. But patenting can still be a waste of money. It all depends on how the money is spent. The best strategy has the patent attorney involved in both the R&D and strategic planning efforts, helping to secure broad monopolies and creating roadblocks against competitors.

Some engineers, scientists and programmers have a difficult time with this concept. They tend to focus on actually building things, optimizing their performance, and reducing production costs. But that doesn't necessarily create a monopoly. As demonstrated by the myriad companies that went bust during the dot com frenzy of the late 1990s, successful companies have to find some way of creating a monopoly or some other barrier to entry against competitors. In the patent world this means finding a creative patent attorney who understands how to manipulate the patent laws for commercial benefit, implementing a policy of creative and cost-effective patenting, and then helping to locate the funds needed to make it happen.