What Every Entrepreneur Should Know About Patent Protection

You’ve just come up with a brilliant new invention. Naturally, your first thought is: I need to patent this. But where do you start? What kind of patent should you get? And how much will it really cost?

Turns out, patents aren’t one-size-fits-all. What makes sense for a Fortune 500 company could bankrupt a bootstrapped startup. That’s why developing a well-crafted patent strategy upfront is critical for your endeavor. It can help you get the best possible protection based on your specific needs and financial situation.

Take a garage startup with a great new product. The cost of filing for a formal patent, also called a non-provisional utility patent application, can run into the tens of thousands of dollars. That’s a steep price for many early-stage entrepreneurs.

But there’s another option: a provisional patent application. For just a few hundred dollars (with an attorney’s help), a provisional application acts like a fence post, staking your claim as of the filing date. It buys you a critical year to get up and running. Once you’ve filed a provisional application, you can safely pitch to investors, list your product for sale, or even start generating revenue, all without worrying about losing patent rights or someone stealing your idea.

In other words, it’s a low-cost, high-impact way to protect your intellectual property while buying time to secure the resources needed for a full utility patent.

Types of patents

Before we go any further, it’s important to understand the different types of patents out there. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office recognizes three types of patents: utility patents, design patents, and plant patents. Utility patents are the most common, and have provisional and non-provisional application options. Here's what the three patent types cover:

1. Utility patents are the gold standard for inventors, covering how an invention works and what it does. These patents generally last for 20 years.
2. Design patents protect the unique appearance of a product, rather than what it does or how it operates.
3. Plant patents are for individuals who’ve developed a new, asexually reproduced plant variety, like a new hybrid fruit tree.

The power of a provisional patent application

The biggest advantage of filing a provisional application is that for minimal upfront cost, you give yourself time to test the waters. Instead of sinking thousands of dollars into a full utility patent right away, you can explore what’s possible with your invention.

That one-year window can be priceless. You might discover that the market isn’t quite ready for you, or that a pivot could make your IP far more viable. Maybe a slight tweak transforms it into something more marketable. If you go straight to a non-provisional patent, you could be wasting thousands on an idea that might still be half-baked. That’s a big gamble for a startup or solo inventor.

Another huge advantage of a provisional application is speed. Over the years, I’ve seen too many inventors lose their patent rights simply because they waited too long to file. Whereas a non-provisional utility application can take months to draft, review, and perfect, a provisional can often be filed in just a few days to a week.

A provisional patent application in action

Let’s say you have a major investor meeting next week, but you currently have no IP protection. You can quickly meet with an attorney to discuss your invention and get a provisional patent application on file. That will prevent someone else from scooping up your idea for up to a year.

It also allows you to say your IP is patent pending. That’s a powerful phrase that instantly boosts credibility with potential investors and partners. Walking into a pitch saying, “Let me show you my patent-pending invention” shows that you are serious and carries far more weight than walking in with an unprotected idea.

Perhaps the most valuable part of filing a provisional patent application is the professional guidance that comes with it. When you sit down with a patent attorney, you’re getting a strategic partner who can help you see opportunities you might have missed.

Maybe there are other things there that you’re not quite seeing. Perhaps a design patent could be in your future. Possibly there are different elements of your invention that you haven’t fully considered protecting. These are the kinds of insights that can surface during a consultation.

We’re genuinely excited to hear about your startup ideas and help you map out the best path forward.