MY TWO CENTS ON PATENTS
Joshua Perrella
Host of The Bizfluent Podcast, Business Consultant, Lending Broker, Super Star Networker, SVP National Accounts Manager, Business Owner, Specializing in Healthcare, Logistics, Industrial and Manufacturing.
Ultimately, it depends on your end game, financials and product, but what people dont talk enough about is timing. Patents are important. I would never tell anyone not to get one, but...... Timing is even more important!
Your goal should be to: get to market as fast as you can, as efficiently as you can, with smart investments into the tools that can get you there.
The problem with weighting patents so highly is that a patent is only as good as your wallet. You can have a great patent, but if someone steals your idea and you don't have a dime to your name. A patent doesn't do you much good now does it? Now, if the thief ends up being in China or outside the US, multiply your problem by a million.
What you get when you weight timing ahead of a patent is Market Share. The faster you can attain market share, the stronger your position is. In turn, you will continue to sell more because you developed the market first. Its like the band aid or the Nike of your product. There were plenty of imitators after that, but most want to continue to buy the quality of the first person in that industry and with a successful market grab, you make money. That money, in turn, protects your product.
So....get a patent, but it is NOT the most important thing or the first thing you have to get in order to be successful.
In addition, your NDA covers you for a lot of the business you will do in the front end of development. The main thing is to deal with people who are professional and have bigger clients than you.
I never talk bad about true competitors but, Inventor Help and companies like it are a SCAM! Dont do it, EVER! I dont really consider these companies as competitors anyways.
Furthermore, I would never steal someones idea and neither will 99.9% of reputable companies because our industry generally has integrity. Companies that deal in your type of product is where you lose ideas to theft. On top of that, most firms also have the trust of several million dollar clients. No company, in their right mind, is going to be willing to screw over a small client/inventor just to lose million dollar clients. That is a lot of risk to take to lose guaranteed million dollar clients. In my world, it aint going to happen with or without an NDA. Just something to think about.