On Patents

Posted on January 30, 2007
Filed Under Thoughts & Ideas |

What should be done if you have a truly magnificent idea, which you believe can be turned into a profitable business? My first advice is to share the idea, which you can read more about in this post. Here is another post on the same subject, from the blog InnovationZen by Daniel Scocco. If you are into entrepreneurship and innovation, this blog is definitely worth a visit! This is one of my favorites! Anyway, back to the patent.

A lot of people tend to think that a patent is the first parameter which should be considered. I disagree. Here is why.

The first thing you actually should do is to see if anyone already did get a patent on this specific idea. Omission to do this can result in huge commission claims from the founder of the idea. So let’s say the idea is not patented by anyone. Should you get the patent then? Well think about this. The reason you want to pay for a patent is to take away other peoples rights to use this idea, which is fair. But does it work this way? Well if there actually is someone out there who is willing to steal your idea, you are still not safe, even with a patent.

First of all, getting a patent can take up to four years. Nonetheless, from the day you send in the description of your idea to get a patent on it, it will be publicized after eighteen months, no matter if it’s approved or not (In Denmark at least). This is a true goldmine for the uncreative guy, who is on the lookout for a good idea. Furthermore, getting a patent is not exactly cheap, so you might think that for starters, you would file for a patent in your own country. This is another give-away for entrepreneurs in every other country than the one you live in. Last but not least, if you do get a patent on your idea, you simply have to put it into action! Having a patent and not using it commercially is the same as blocking anyone else from using an “un-used” idea, which is illegal (however, I guess this is a good motivation to actually get you started).

Most countries have a database of published patents. This is open for everyone, in order to see if a new idea already is patented. This is easily accessed from the internet. Maybe needless to say you ought to reconsider this option.

One might argue that getting a patent then will be the same as sharing the idea with the entire world, which is pretty much, what I am recommending? In theory yes. However, this is an incredibly expensive and tedious way of archiving that. Furthermore, you are not asking any questions here. Simply just stating your brilliant idea! If you are looking for answers, recommendations and opinions, this won’t help you.

Of course there are several good things about getting a patent, but I just think that it is highly overrated and that it does not provide all the benefits that the entrepreneur often tends to think it does. Also, I think that entrepreneurs tend to assess the risk of competition much too high. You should be aware of your competition, absolutely, but in the startup process, competition is just one among many factors that can harm the company.

Stop thinking patent and copyrights. Share your ideas, make people talk and get feedback. This will give you essential knowledge, which is required to put things into action.


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Comments

2 Responses to “On Patents”

  1. collis on March 25th, 2007 10:50 pm

    Wow thats a real eye-opener, particularly about the publishing of patents after 18 months! That is such a bizarre thing to do. I should find out what things are like here in Australia - not that i have much to patent :-)

  2. Jakob Dupont Knudsen on March 27th, 2007 2:40 pm

    I agree! This is really a factor which makes you think again, before applying for a patent.

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