The Pros and Cons of Patents
Trying to decide whether or not to file a patent, for your new idea or invention, can be overwhelming for those novice to the patent process. New and great ideas each year, go unprotected because of a lack of knowledge and motivation to work through the legal process. Follow through is imperative to protecting your idea from competitors. However, it's not a walk in the park to obtain legal protection on your invention - consider the pro's and con's of a patent before moving forward.
Positives
- Obtaining a patent on your invention allows you to take legal action against a person or company from copying your product, process or technology without your permission.
- Patents typically provide 20 years of protection from another company copying your invention without your permission.
- You can produce and profit from your patent or sell the rights to another company. Many companies work to obtain patents for the purpose of selling to other companies for their use.
- You are not required to have a patent to create, produce and sell a product. However, another company or individual can come along and duplicate your invention, obtain a patent and put you out of business.
- A provisional patent may be filed during the finalization of a new invention - providing temporary protection. This will give a company approximately 1 year to finalize their product and file for a full patent before another company can attempt the same.
- Patented products sometimes have an edge over the competition. For many reasons, consumers like to hear "patented" or "patented pending".
Negatives
- During the patent application process your super top-secret, once in a lifetime, idea becomes public knowledge. That said, companies can potentially take your initial idea and modify it enough to create their own patented super, amazing product.
- A patent requires many preliminary steps, legal documents and sometimes years to achieve approval. This can be expensive to apply for and sometimes the product in question doesn't do well in the market - a financial risk to those that pay for the patent.
- Once a patent is obtained, regular maintenance fees are required to keep a patent active. If you don't pay the fees your invention will go unprotected.
- A patent only offers coverage within the US and only if you identify that someone else is using your idea. Having patent protection doesn't stop someone from attempting to profit off your idea, especially if they're not caught in the act. Taking legal action against a patent offender can be very expensive and hard to recuperate the costs from.
