Advice
Why Every Inventor Should Educate Themselves Before Filing a Patent
What a patent really costs, what retail buyers actually ask about your IP, and what to know before you pay a patent attorney.
Yohan Jacob
14 min read
Do you need a patent to sell your product? Before you answer, look at the cost. Getting even a simple patent approved, a process known as prosecuting a patent application, can cost up to $10,000 at home and $100,000 or more for worldwide rights (InventionStatistics.com).
For most people, hiring a patent attorney or IP professional to file even one patent costs too much. Many inventors have several ideas but can’t afford to patent each one. So millions of good ideas never see the light of day. Worse, someone else with the money to protect and sell them brings them to market later.
Key takeaways
- Even a simple patent can cost up to $10,000 at home and $100,000 or more for worldwide rights, according to InventionStatistics.com.
- In most categories, a granted patent is not what stands between you and a shelf. Buyers ask about your trademark, your liability insurance, your safety certification and indemnification.
- A patent gives you the right to act against a copy. It does not stop the copy, and enforcing it is a separate and costly job.
- Learning before you hire is the cheapest step in the process. It turns an unknown service into a defined piece of work.
- A search before a filing is the cheapest way to find out whether the filing is worth making at all.
- Be careful with anyone who loves your idea before anyone has searched it, and who wants a fee up front for that enthusiasm.
- IP education is easier to reach than it was. Classes run in 9 languages and counting, so cost and language are no longer reasons to go in blind.
Do you need a patent to sell your product in a store?
In most categories, no. You do not need a granted patent to sell through a retailer, and a buyer rarely asks about one. They ask whether you own your brand name. They ask whether you carry liability insurance. They ask whether the product meets the safety rules for its category. And they ask who pays if something goes wrong.
Hold on to this distinction. A patent is about whether you can stop someone copying your product later. It has very little to do with whether a retailer will stock you now.
| A patent decides | A retail buyer decides |
|---|---|
| Whether you can take legal action against a copy | Whether the product will sell in their stores |
| What happens to rivals after you file and it is granted | What happens to their shelf space this season |
| Whether the invention is new and not obvious | Whether the packaging, pricing and margin work |
| Your position in a licensing deal | Whether your paperwork, insurance and certificates are in order |
| Your position when raising money | Whether you can deliver the order and support the sell-through |
That does not make a patent useless. It matters a great deal in a few situations, and you should know whether you are in one. It matters where copying is fast and cheap. A simple product can be copied and on the market in weeks, so protecting your product from unauthorized resellers becomes part of the plan. It matters when you ask a retailer for exclusivity. A buyer giving you protected shelf space wants to know the product cannot show up next door at half the price. It matters if you plan to license the invention rather than make it, because the patent is the thing being licensed. And it matters when you raise money. Investors treat defensible IP as part of the asset.
Be clear about what a patent does not do, too. It does not stop a rival entering your category. It gives you the right to act against one who infringes it. That is a different thing, and a far more expensive one. Enforcement means a lawsuit. A lawsuit against a bigger rival costs money you may not have and time you would rather spend selling.
So the honest order for most product brands is this. Protect the brand name first. Get the compliance and insurance in place. Get the product selling. Then treat the patent as a business decision about what you are protecting and from whom. It is not a box to tick before you are allowed to start.
Note
This article is general information about IP and commercialization, not legal advice. Patent law, fees and procedures vary by country and change over time. Check anything specific to your situation with a qualified patent attorney or agent in the relevant country.
The High Cost of Inaction
Millions of people with great ideas never gain anything from them. They lack the knowledge, the money or the guidance to bring the idea to market.
Pro tip
Pay for a search before you pay for a filing. Ask for the search results in writing, not just a verdict. If something close already exists, you have saved the cost of an application that was never going to survive. If nothing does, you have the evidence to brief an attorney properly, and a much shorter conversation to pay for.
Think about it:
- How many times have you had a great product idea but did nothing? Maybe you didn’t know what to do next. Maybe you couldn’t afford the process.
- How many times have you mentioned an idea, only to see someone else bring it to market later?
If you want to avoid losing your ideas, you need to know how to protect and commercialize them. Commercializing means making and shipping, too. Read up on the fulfillment mistakes hardware inventors make before you place a production order.
What a patent costs, and what moves the number
Start from the figure at the top of this article. Getting even a simple patent approved, a process known as prosecuting a patent application, can cost up to $10,000 at home and $100,000 or more for worldwide rights, according to InventionStatistics.com.
Those are ranges, not prices. The gap between them is the whole point. What moves the number is no mystery. Knowing the drivers tells you far more than any quoted average would.
| What moves the cost | Which way it moves it |
|---|---|
| How complex the invention is | A complex invention takes longer to describe and draft, so it costs more |
| How many claims are drafted | More claims mean more drafting time and higher official fees |
| How many office actions you get | Every objection from the examiner that needs an answer adds attorney time |
| How many countries you file in | Each country brings its own fees, translations and local agents. That is why worldwide rights sit at the top of the range |
| Whether you search first | A search before filing can stop you paying for an application that was never going to be granted |
| Whether you start with a provisional filing | A provisional is cheaper up front and delays the larger cost. It does not remove it |
| How much prep work you do yourself | Drawings, background research and a clear written description cut the hours an attorney has to bill |
Those drivers are stable. The fee schedules are not. They change over time, they differ by firm and they differ by country. The only reliable number is the one you get in writing for your own invention. If you are based abroad, the country question cuts both ways. Read our guide to selling into US retail from overseas before you decide where to file.
This brings up the part most inventors get wrong. The question is rarely whether to spend. It is what to spend first. A search before a filing is the cheapest step in the whole sequence. It is also the one that most often saves the rest. Either it tells you the idea is already out there, or it gives your attorney something solid to draft around. Next comes the choice of whether to file a provisional to buy time. Only then do you ask which countries are worth the money. Spend in that order and each decision is made with better information than the last. Spend out of order and you write checks to learn what a search would have told you.
Why Small Companies Need IP Education Too
It’s not just independent inventors who need to be informed. Many small companies spend large sums protecting new products, sometimes at the expense of their business strategy.
“Simply filing patents can be a costly and time-consuming process, making it imperative for small companies to be selective about what patents they file.” (InventionStatistics.com)
Train employees to handle parts of the patent process. Small companies can save thousands of dollars that way. They also work faster and rely less on high-priced attorneys.
Key Questions Every Inventor Should Ask
Before you invest in a patent, ask yourself:
Pro tip
Check whether you can own your brand name before you spend anything on a patent. A trademark problem stops you selling under that name at all, in every channel, right away. A patent problem only matters once somebody copies you. Inventors often get this order backwards. They find out the name is taken after the packaging is printed.
- Should I even bother filing a patent?
- What are the chances I will need to defend my patent?
- If I need to defend it, will I win?
- If I need to defend it, can I afford the legal fees against a large rival?
- Should I get my product to market first and put the money into marketing, advertising and fulfillment?
Good online or in-person courses on IP can answer these questions.
What a retail buyer actually asks about your intellectual property
The questions on the other side of a vendor onboarding call are not about your invention. A buyer is managing their own company’s exposure. So they ask about risk transfer, not novelty. These are the questions that come up, and they are a large part of the risks of moving into retail. Have the answers ready before the meeting, not during it.
Do you own the brand name? This is a trademark question. It is almost always more urgent than the patent question. A retailer will not put a name on a shelf label, a website and a circular if someone else may have a claim to it. Search the name properly. Know whether anyone uses it in your class of goods. Be able to say where your application or registration stands.
Do you carry product liability insurance, and at what level? Most retailers set a minimum coverage level. Many also require you to name them as an additional insured on your policy. Turn up without cover, or with cover below their threshold, and onboarding stalls for weeks while you arrange it. Find out the requirement before you pitch. Price the premium into your costs.
Is the product certified for its category? Safety and compliance testing depends on what you sell. It might be electrical safety, materials testing, children’s product rules or labeling rules. A buyer will ask for the certificate, not for your word. Testing takes time. Start it after a purchase order arrives and your first delivery will be late.
Have you read the indemnification clause? The vendor agreement almost certainly makes you responsible for defending the retailer against claims that come from your product. That includes recall costs and legal fees. This clause decides what a problem costs you. Most brands sign it without reading it. Have someone who understands it read it for you.
Can you confirm you are not infringing anyone else? Buyers ask because a claim against your product becomes their problem once it is on their shelf. A freedom to operate search before launch is cheap. Finding out through a cease and desist letter after the product is in a thousand stores is not.
Who owns the design? If you used an outside designer, a contract manufacturer or a freelance developer, the default ownership may not be what you assume. Get the assignment in writing and signed before the product ships. A manufacturer who owns the tooling design and the rights to it can sell your product to your rival. Brands find this out at the worst possible moment.
An unprepared answer to any of these costs time. Time is the thing you have least of once a buyer says yes. Onboarding windows close. Category reviews pass. A vendor who cannot produce a certificate of insurance within a week can lose a placement that took a year to win.
Benefits of Educating Yourself on IP
Learning about patents and IP can help you:
- Avoid scams and charlatans
- Choose competent IP professionals
- Make your patent attorney more efficient
- Do much of the work yourself and save money, especially with several inventions
- Gain confidence in handling the patent process
“Simply filing patents can be a costly and time-consuming process, making it imperative for small companies to be selective about what patents they file.” (Roger Brown, EdisonNation.com)
Are Invention Submission Companies Safe?
Some invention submission companies can help inventors who lack time, money or resources. Others are predatory:
Pro tip
Treat enthusiasm about your idea as a warning sign, not a good sign. That goes double when it arrives before any search and alongside a request for an upfront fee. A professional about to do real work will usually start by telling you what could go wrong. Someone selling you hope has no reason to.
“Some companies claim that after a review process, you give up all IP rights and receive only minimal royalties. Many inventors don’t see real returns.” (G. Williams, EdisonNation.com)
The educated inventor knows how to avoid scams and pick reputable companies.
“It is sadly true that there are a lot of fraudulent operators in the invention and patent market, but one of the operators that I have had my eye on for some time is not a true invention promotion or scam company, but rather a patent attorney who gives all of the rest of us a bad name.” (Gene Quinn, IPWatchdog.com)
Warning signs before you pay anybody
Money spent badly at this stage is rarely recovered. The patterns are consistent enough to spot. Watch for any of these before you sign anything or send a payment.
- Enthusiasm about your idea before anyone has run a search on it.
- An upfront fee for a market evaluation or an invention assessment.
- A promise, or a strong hint, that manufacturers or retailers are already interested.
- Pressure to decide quickly, or a discount that expires.
- Reluctance to put the scope of work and the fee basis in writing.
- No straight answer about who will actually draft the application.
- No clear explanation of what happens, and what it costs, if the application is rejected.
- A request that you hand over rights to the invention as part of the deal.
- Testimonials and success stories with no way to verify any of them.
What good looks like is duller, and easier to spot once you know what to look for. A reputable firm will give you a written scope of work. They will give you a clear fee basis, with the official fees listed separately. They will tell you to run a search before they suggest a filing. They will tell you honestly how likely the application is to succeed, even when the answer is not very. And they will name the person doing the drafting.
Ask for all of that in writing and see what comes back. Anyone unwilling to put the scope, the fee and the process on paper is telling you something useful, at no cost to you. Take time to check. Get a second quote. Nobody reputable needs you to decide this week.
The Importance of Accessible IP Education
Sadly, affordable and complete IP education is rare. Most programs are regional. General Inventions is one example of a web-based company with global access. They run workshops where inventors work on their own projects, including patent applications, under the eye of experienced IP professionals. Classes are available in 9 languages and counting.
Equip Yourself to Succeed
Too many talented inventors, innovators and entrepreneurs rush toward success and end up let down. They were not prepared for the challenges along the way.
Pro tip
Before you talk to a retailer, get your liability insurance, category certification and brand ownership in order, in that sequence. Those three come up in almost every vendor onboarding call. A patent usually does not. Sorting them takes weeks. Start them after a buyer says yes and the yes turns into a delay.
Investing in quality, affordable IP education can help you avoid pitfalls, protect your ideas and improve your odds. The same goes for getting your product into a retailer: learn the process before you need it. Don’t leave your invention’s future to chance.
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Frequently asked questions
In most categories, yes. A retailer decides on the sales case, the margin, the packaging and whether you can supply reliably. A patent is about whether you can act against a copy later. That is a separate question from whether you can sell now. A buyer is far more likely to ask about your brand ownership, your liability insurance and your category certification.
Getting even a simple patent approved, a process known as prosecuting a patent application, can cost up to $10,000 at home and $100,000 or more for worldwide rights, according to InventionStatistics.com. What moves it is how complex the invention is, how many claims you draft, how many examiner objections you must answer and how many countries you file in.
It depends on what you plan to do with it. It can be worth a great deal if you plan to license rather than make it, if you are raising money against it, if you are asking a retailer for exclusivity, or if your category is one where copying is fast and cheap. If you make and sell a product that is hard to copy quickly, the money may do more work elsewhere.
It is hard, and it is the scenario that invention promotion services are built around. Companies usually buy or license something that works and shows signs of demand. An idea with no prototype, no protection and no market evidence gives the other side very little to value. It gives you very little to negotiate with.
Enthusiasm about your idea before anyone has searched it. An upfront fee for a market evaluation. A promise of manufacturer or retailer interest. Pressure to decide quickly. Reluctance to put the scope of work and the fee basis in writing. A professional about to do real work usually begins by telling you what could go wrong.
