{"id":539,"date":"2013-01-16T15:45:55","date_gmt":"2013-01-16T19:45:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.payne.org\/?p=539"},"modified":"2013-01-16T15:45:55","modified_gmt":"2013-01-16T19:45:55","slug":"patents-and-software-startups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/payne.org\/blog\/patents-and-software-startups\/","title":{"rendered":"Patents and Software Startups"},"content":{"rendered":"

Occasionally, I hear from a software entrepreneur with a “patented” or “patent pending” idea. \u00a0Many people view patents in a almost glamorous way: \u00a0“Get a patent, and you can control your idea<\/em>“.\u00a0 I’ve done a lot of patent work (15 issued<\/a>, including two of the most cited patents in US history), and it’s never that simple. \u00a0Patents are very tricky.<\/p>\n

For startups, patents make the most sense in industries with (a) relatively long development times and (b) significant R&D budgets. \u00a0The PTO doesn’t move quickly: \u00a0for some art units, it can take 2-3 years (or more) to get a patent issued.\u00a0 That’s fine for a biotech company bringing a new drug to market, but is much too long for a software company launching a product in six months.<\/p>\n

Also, patents can be very expensive. \u00a0For a $750,000 seed round, it may not make sense to spend ~5% of that (or more) on getting US patents filed. \u00a0International? \u00a0Budget six figures.<\/p>\n

Finally, fundraising entrepreneurs frequently overplay the value of patents, missing the other elements needed to make a\u00a0successful\u00a0business and making themselves look na\u00efve. \u00a0For example, “provisional patents” don’t exist: \u00a0it’s a\u00a0provisional application<\/em><\/a>\u00a0that gives an option to file for a utility patent later (and it’s just that, an application).\u00a0 “Patented” means patent issued and in force, “patent pending” means a patent filed but not issued.<\/p>\n

If you don’t have an issued patent, it’s a long and expensive journey: \u00a0claims are often rejected entirely or issued very narrowly. \u00a0It’s nearly impossible to know what a patent is worth until it issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Occasionally, I hear from a software entrepreneur with a “patented” or “patent pending” idea. \u00a0Many people view patents in a almost glamorous way: \u00a0“Get a patent, and you can control your idea“.\u00a0 I’ve done a lot of patent work (15 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-software"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/payne.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/payne.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/payne.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/payne.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/payne.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/payne.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/payne.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/payne.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/payne.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}