Patent Attorney and Founder
Hi everyone, I’m J.D. Houvener, your host of the Bold Today’s Show where you, the inventor, entrepreneur, or business owner, get your daily inspiration so you can go make the world a better place.
We’re here in our series talking about how to patent your invention. Sounds simple, but we’re providing a 13-step process, and we’re here on step four today, walking you through the basics of understanding the goals of where you are at as the inventor. Yeah, it seems like kind of a cheesy concept and not very technical or even related to your patent, but knowing what your goals are as the client is critical right up front for the patent attorney to know so that you can be supported properly and served well along the way.
There are really only two main paths to talk about here in goals. You’re either the type of inventor that wants to start and grow a business, you’re a budding entrepreneur, maybe you already are one and this is your next line of products in your research and development, or maybe you’re a startup, and you know that you want to grow a team and take this all the way up to that exit you’re looking for or who knows maybe the public offering. So, if growing a business is your goal, that’s great to know. We need to know that right up front so that we can provide you the right advice along the way, which mainly consists of referrals, smart timely referrals to other service providers that can help get you in line and make sure your liabilities are reduced as far as possible. Examples are setting up your business entity, making sure your employment and independent contractor agreements are properly set up, as well as licensing of the technology that we’re working so hard to earn for you.
Now, on the other hand, if your goal is just to feed that technologist, just to be that inventor, you have no plans to go into business, and you just want to license or sell your invention, this is also really important to know so that we look at early steps, early ways that we can carve avenues to get conversations with the low-hanging fruit, with the big target clients that might be looking to purchase or license your technology. So, if you haven’t really thought about this and what your goals are, where you’re looking to go in this patent world, you need to start with at least looking into one or the other one of these paths. And it kind of starts with this notion that you’ve got to have a plan. You can’t just expect that when the patent gets issued that people will be flocking to your door to buy your product or service. You’ve got to do the work. We’re here to help you, just let us know which path you want to go down. I’m your host J.D. Houvener of the Bold Today’s Show. Go big, go bold.