Do you have a patent? Do you want a patent? Should you spend the money on a patent application? Many start-ups ponder these questions. The fact is most issued patents (over 10,000,000) are not worth any money.
What gives a patent value are its claims, the claims can be used to sue an infringer. The writing of claims is a topic for a different post, but for the everyday inventor, claims are often written so narrowly that they can easily be engineered around, rendering them useless.
Narrow claims are not the inventor's fault, nor the lawyer's failure, it is the consequence of being required by the patent office to restrict the invention to just what is considered new and not obvious. With 10,000,000+ issued patents and countless more published patent applications, publications, and the internet, finding an aspect of an invention that is new and not obvious can be difficult, resulting in narrow claims.
All everyday patented inventions that can be engineered around, avoiding the claims, avoiding the patent, avoiding the whole point.
When deciding whether or not to file for a patent, you should you consider patentability, but also, how narrow will you have to define your claims.
Est Cost of a regular domestic Utility Patent - $5000-$25,000 - 3-5 years to process
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