Patent Filing Advice

From my understanding, you can file a patent and it will be in application for 1-2 years (at least that is the period here in EU). During that time, it doesn't have be publicised (one possible reason why you couldn't find it), but if someone else were to do the same thing, it can serve as a tool to claim prior art.However… going to an actual patent raises the costs substantially, more so if you want to be protected in multiple countries—translation-costs, etc. and the total cost can ea

Get a loan, patent and sell your idea, pay a loan. If you can't sell your idea, may be it should not be patented.

You need to pay for a consultation with a patent attorney. If you can't afford to pay even a few hundred dollars for this you are doomed and you might as well shut down your company now.

Patent. It costs about 10k. March to bank and negotiate it. That sum is somewhat easy to earn if you fail, they have almost no risk.Once you have "pending" you have your idea protected enough. Marketing should start as soon as it's filed.Nobody cares to copy as long as your patent is seen invaluable. If it's seen as valuable, you can easily sell it to someone who will defend it. Or raise funds to protect it yourself, as it's now reasonable investment.I'm in

Especially as filing a patent costs several hundred dollars. If you have an idea but not much money, you can't afford to patent it (or might have to make the choice between buying a patent or marketing your invention).

> Patents protect inventors and encourage innovation.Practically, patents only protect large-scale holders with time and finance to enforce them."For a claim that could be worth less than a $1 million, median legal costs are $650,000. "https://www.cnet.com/news/how-much-is-that-patent-lawsuit-go...I've seen this first

Assuming the small company can even file a patent. To do that you need capital, lawyers, developers with free time. Meanwhile your larger competitor has already filed a dozen of them and has used a few vague ones in your domain to sue you out of existence.

Do you have a patent? If not, get one - I don't see anybody investing in an idea whose IP is unprotected.

It's not particularly useful once your company is going, but investors like to see that your IP is exclusive and protected. It's still probably not worth the money to pay a lawyer to write it, but you can file a patent or provisional patent yourself for next to nothing. Check out the Nolo Press books on the topic.

It's rare for individuals, because a patent costs ~$25k to file and maintain, and the process takes ~5 years. Patents are narrow and taken out very early in the inventive process - so prone to being irrelevant or silly. The really valuable patents - fundamental ones - are particularly risky. This adds up to meaning that the mass insurance of corporate sponsorship is the only way for inventors to profit (marginally, and as a group).