If you’ve been involved in creating and marketing a new product, you know all too well the danger of having your ideas stolen or copied. In fact, it probably keeps you up at night—just as it did for innovators like Steve Jobs. Patenting the features that make your product unique is a common approach, but is having a patent worth the hefty initial and ongoing costs? Registering one or more patents is an expensive legal process, and the maintenance bills can be burdensome for any startup struggling with cash flow. Yet those standard expenses can be dwarfed by the costs of litigation. To top it off, the majority of patent infringement suits ultimately get thrown out of court!

So is getting a patent really worth it?

In Episode 23 of Product: Knowledge, Intellectual Property strategist Trevor Prentice joins host Laurier Mandin to discuss the costs and some less-known benefits of having a patent—and advice to develop your product patent strategy. Even if you own multiple patents already, what you come away with from Trevor’s answers will likely be surprising:

In this episode, you will learn: 

• The types of patents and what can be patented (2:45)
• Is it worth including multiple claims? (3:20)
• What is “prior art” and why the way you describe it matters to your patent application (4:51)
• Why all patents are not created equally (6:51)
• Why so many patent infringement cases are dismissed (7:15)
• How to identify in advance the value you need to extract from having a patent (8:00)
• The most valuable (but less-known) benefits of having your IP patented (9:30-11:00)
• Patents and your business’ credibility (11:40)
• How much to budget for getting and maintaining a patent (13:00)
• When it's time to call an IP consultant (15:50)
• What most lawyers don’t do for their clients—and why it’s a major gap (17:10)
• How an IP portfolio can increase the overall value of your business (18:30)

IP Strategist Trevor Prentice at The IP Link: TheIPlink.com
Graphos Product Product Marketing Agency website: GraphosProduct.com