Minneapolis Patent Law Blog

Some compare being a patent holder to holding a lottery ticket. Just because you have the number doesn't mean you're a winner. Some dismiss the whole idea of pursuing a patent for that reason. They might believe the costs of seeking a patent are so unknown or so high, and that the odds of making any money off the idea are so low, that it's not worth the effort. But, as the old line goes, you can't win a game if you don't play it.

By consulting with an experienced patent law attorney, one committed to transparency about the process and the associated costs from the outset, inventors can best assess whether their new idea is not just patentable, but also marketable and how. The bottom line, the most important reason to explore getting a patent is to protect your idea from theft by someone else.

What is it like to obtain a patent? Ask Billy Beane, the one-time baseball general manager. As he expressed in the movie "Moneyball," "It's a process. It's a process. It's a process." In Beane's case, the process involved data analytics about on-base percentages and persuading his team to play to maximize that metric. It worked. But it took time.

The same can be said for successfully obtaining a patent. It can be so complicated, in fact, that a single misstep along the way often means serious loss. Not only can it delay an inventor's rights to monetize an idea, they could be lost completely.

If you are an inventor, then you know just how valuable your ideas are and how important it is to protect them from others who may attempt to counterfeit or copy them as their own. One of the most important steps in terms of protecting your intellectual property is to apply for a patent for your invention.

Even the most diligent inventors sometimes experience the awful reality of another company or individual ripping off their original idea. When something like this happens, it is crucial to take the emotions out of the situation and proceed in a strategic way. 

If anything in patent law triggers a love-hate reaction it is likely the processes related to inter partes review (IPR).

For those unfamiliar with it, inter partes review is a form of in-house review the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has used since 2012 to adjudicate certain challenges to patent rights. Until this year, it had garnered little attention from mainstream media. But two cases decided recently by the U.S. Supreme Court, and one that is coming up for consideration have sparked interest across business and the intellectual property law arena. For good reason.