Patent Your Startup

 Should I apply for a patent?

In order to apply for a patent you must meet a few requirements.  Is your invention novel? Translated: Has anyone else done this before?  You have to have a unique invention in order to apply for a patent, that is not public knowledge.  Also, your invention must be “not obvious”.  It cannot be a simple combination of 2 other inventions that work in a predictable manner.  We don’t want people to have the ability the obvious.  If you can pass these patentability tests, you may want to apply for a patent.  For a utility patent your invention must also be useful.  This requirement is easy to meet; if your invention doessomething, it is useful.  Test Passed.

                                      How much will it cost?

Patents in and of themselves are not very expensive, legal fees are.  You can write a provisional patent yourself and file it today for $150.  It will be valid for 12 months and can be filed as late as 12 months after your first public disclosure (grace period).  Provisional patents are only reviewed to ensure the forms are filled out and the filer paid; that’s it!  The patent office will give you a serial number and that is all.  You have to file non-provisional application to get a “real” patent. Using a patent attorney, this is likely to cost between $30K and $200K depending how complicated your invention is and how many office actions the patent office provides you.  Also, it is common for the process to take 3-5 years to actually have the patent approved.

                                                                            When should I apply?

Since the new first to file laws went into effect in March 2013, the sooner you get a date on your patent application the better.  A good rule of thumb is you can file a provisional shortly after finding your life-altering invention, you don’t have to have the actual invention in hand to do this.  You should submit your non-provisional patent application shortly after creating your first prototype.  Tons of detailed information is required in the non-provisional patent application which necessitates the knowledge of creating a working prototype.  This is assuming you could actually create your invention within  12 months of filing the provisional patent application.

Send me your questions about how patents effect your startup! Itunes University has a great patent law class for entrepreneurs provided by Stanford.