Corporations are coming to me to deploy my method on their ideas, as well as to ask me and my team to come up with ideas for them. You may be surprised to learn that the one thing they never bring up to me in our early discussions is patenting. You see, corporations have been developing ideas into products for decades, and they understand when the patent comes into play.

A new invention inside a corporation may start out as an idea from an engineer, who builds a prototype, then goes for additional funding and review by corporate executives until finally someone says, “This really looks like it could be a new product for our company.” At that point, some corporations look at patenting as an option. Others will actually send their sales people to meet with the buyers, who agree to confidentiality, and present the innovation to get feedback to see if there’s any market for this new creation. If, at either of these stages, the feedback doesn’t look promising, the corporations don’t bother wasting their money on attorneys and patent fees. A new invention by an everyday person, however, usually starts out differently than those of experienced corporations.

If you’re reading this blog, it probably means you’re into ideas, and you’ve probably been in a setting where someone said, “Oh, I’ve got an idea,” and someone else said, “You better get a patent first.” Well, this has happened to me recently, and as I sat there and listened to the dialogue between these two people who had no corporate experience, it dawned on me. Little did they know – the way it works is, in fact, the exact opposite. The idea in question hadn’t been developed at all. Anybody who does this work knows that every idea goes through many changes on its journey from a thought to a finished product that can be manufactured and packaged at a price point that the consumer is willing to pay.

The lesson is simple, folks: Patent like a corporation — after you have fully figured out the product and know if it’s wanted by the buyers. Don’t waste your money.

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