How to patent an idea for startups

There are four different types of patents and if you're a startup looking to protect one of your inventions or ideas you need to think about your patent strategy.

I’ve been granted six different patents and I’ve been on the receiving end of patent lawsuits and patent trolls. I’m going to tell you the good, the bad and the ugly truth about patent and how to get one if you decide you need one, and why I think patents are often not worth it.

The most typical type of patent called a Utility patent. A utility patent protects the inventor of a new idea and allows them to have a monopoly on their invention for 20 years.

A Utility Patent is for new and non-obvious inventions. The other three types of patents:

Design Patents – These protect the aesthetic look of your product. These are useful if you didn’t invent something new but you think the look of your product is particularly unique and you want to prevent knock-offs.

Provisional Patents – These are lower cost patents to hold your place in-line if you’re going to file a Utility patent but are trying to save money but don’t want someone getting the patent first.

Plant Patents – these are only useful if you’re bio-engineering a new plant.

If you’re going to apply for a patent, you’re going to need a lawyer to help you as the process isn’t trivial but there are a lot of things you can do to save yourself time and money.

Most patents describe the main invention and then they list a series of claims. Claims are a generic way to describe your invention…

Ways to save:
- If you can draft your patent claims in plain english this can save your patent attorney time.
- If you can illustrate your idea very simply this can also save time
- Micro-entity can save 75% on patent filing costs – up to 4 patents. As long your income is less than $177K

Most patent processes are a back and forth with the patent office. Expect that your first submission will get rejected and then it’s up to you and your attorney to work with the the patent examiner to provide changes on your patent application to make it unique enough to be accepted.

It typically takes 3 years to get a patent and the legal and filing costs can add up, often over 10,000 per patent. The costs can really depend on your lawyer so make sure you talk to a number of patent attorneys to really understand what you’re getting into.

Now If you’re able to get a patent, it’s just a piece of paper at the patent office.

What can you do with this paper? Three things:
- You can keep it in the drawer for defense – this is how many companies use them. If they get sued, they pull out their patents and say. If you sue me, I’ll sue you back.
- You can use them as an offense – going after other firms that are using your idea. This can be super expensive and if the other company is able to find prior art (examples of your idea before you patented it, they could invalidate your patent)
- Lastly, you can license your patent – or give people permission to use your invention for a fee.
Now – the reason I say that patents may not be the best path for a startup is that defensive patents are very expensive and offensive and licensing strategies tend to be very distracting from the core business of a startup.

If your company produces a designed product, then a design patent may be a cost-effective way to prevent cheap knock-offs… And a company with a good balance sheet may want to invest in patents as part of a larger strategy.

Smaller companies should be cautious about over-indexing on patents unless their idea is extraordinarily unique and not-obvious.

If you’re early and don’t have a lot of cash, consider filing a provisional patent. It’s less expensive and holds your place in line giving you an extra year to decide if you want to file a full patent.