To Patent or Not to Patent, That is the Question...

Hi All,

I have been asked many times why don't I have any patents for any of my items. The answer is very simple. If you are going to get a patent are you willing to defend it? If you are willing to defend it do you have the financial means to defend it? If you are in the business of obtaining patents and selling them then I would still recommend getting a patent. If you come up with something original and are going to sell it yourself then I would forgo the patent process and get your product to market quickly.

I worked for a small engineering company back east that did everything the right way. They obtained a patent on a great idea and were they were successful at selling their product. One day they got a large order from a big corporation. They made some money from this corporation but when it came time to reorder the patented product the corporation told them that they were having their patented product made by someone else. The owner of the small engineering company objected but the response was "Take us to court". The fact was that this large corporation could waste alot of time and money by having that case in court but at the end of the day it would only ruin the small engineering company financially.

I say save your money on patents unless you've got something great, and before you spend money on a patent do your market research.

Thanks,

Andy