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Seventeen thousand dollars? For one patent? (AUD $17k = USD $15.7k according to Google.) My car cost $6,500 USD. What are you buying for the price of $15,70

Seventeen thousand dollars? For one patent? (AUD $17k = USD $15.7k according to Google.) My car cost $6,500 USD. What are you buying for the price of $15,700? Just protection against competitors using your idea?

jacques_chester 13y ago
Seventeen thousand, yes. For two patents, technically. Well, even more technically: for two patent applications and a WIPO assessment that my technology is sufficiently novel and inventive to be patentable in most treaty countries. > Just protection against competitors using your idea? Yes and no. Certainly not protection of a business model, and not protection of a feature. It's a technology which underpins several potential business models, but while it is a better technology, it is not a necessary technology. A competitor -- and some exist already -- can bodge along without it, but they will inevitably have a PR disaster that my technology effectively prevents. The real purpose of the patent is to increase attractiveness to investors and to encourage potential startup competitors to look at other markets. And if it all goes to total crap, I can still put the patent on my résumé. Or not, depending on what kind of company I'm applying to. You'll forgive me if I don't discuss the subject matter of the patent. My competitors could easily burn up more of my cash by raising constant, spurious objections. Another part of the patent game.
- sillysaurus 13y ago
  Another part of the patent game. I'm just trying to understand the incentives to play. Why care about other technology companies, unless they've patented what you're doing?
  - jacques_chester 13y ago
    Because I'm a nobody from nowhere and I will take what advantages I can get (patentability) to ameliorate advantages I don't currently enjoy (connections, pedigree, experience).
robomartin 13y ago
USD $15K is a bargain. You can easily spend many times more than that for a patent.

jacques_chester 13y ago

Seventeen thousand, yes. For two patents, technically. Well, even more technically: for two patent applications and a WIPO assessment that my technology is sufficiently novel and inventive to be patentable in most treaty countries. > Just protection against competitors using your idea? Yes and no. Certainly not protection of a business model, and not protection of a feature. It's a technology which underpins several potential business models, but while it is a better technology, it is not a necessary technology. A competitor -- and some exist already -- can bodge along without it, but they will inevitably have a PR disaster that my technology effectively prevents. The real purpose of the patent is to increase attractiveness to investors and to encourage potential startup competitors to look at other markets. And if it all goes to total crap, I can still put the patent on my résumé. Or not, depending on what kind of company I'm applying to. You'll forgive me if I don't discuss the subject matter of the patent. My competitors could easily burn up more of my cash by raising constant, spurious objections. Another part of the patent game.

sillysaurus 13y ago
Another part of the patent game. I'm just trying to understand the incentives to play. Why care about other technology companies, unless they've patented what you're doing?
- jacques_chester 13y ago
  Because I'm a nobody from nowhere and I will take what advantages I can get (patentability) to ameliorate advantages I don't currently enjoy (connections, pedigree, experience).

robomartin 13y ago

USD $15K is a bargain. You can easily spend many times more than that for a patent.