Insights

Most patent advice online is either marketing copy or a restatement of the statute. These articles try to be neither. They cover the questions inventors and founders actually ask, with the specifics that change the answer, written by a registered U.S. patent attorney who is also a mechanical engineer and a working inventor.

• Patent Basics

  Can You Patent an Idea?

  The short answer is no. The useful answer is what you need instead, and how close you probably already are.

• Deadlines

  What Happens If You Disclose Your Invention Before Filing

  A trade show booth, a conference paper, or a pitch without an NDA can start a clock you cannot stop. Here is what survives and what does not.

• Patent Basics

  Provisional vs Non-Provisional: Which Should You File?

  One buys you time and a priority date. The other is the application that actually becomes a patent. Choosing wrong is expensive in both directions.

• AI & Software

  Are AI Inventions Patentable?

  Yes, and the rejection rate is not what determines the outcome. How the application is drafted is.

• IP Strategy

  Patent or Trade Secret?

  One question settles most of these decisions: can a competitor see it in your product?

• Startups

  Do You Own the IP Your Contractor Built?

  Probably not. Paying someone to invent something does not transfer patent rights, and "work made for hire" does not apply to patents.

• Startups

  What Investors Actually Check in IP Diligence

  The IP section of a diligence request list is short and predictable. Failing it is what takes time, not passing it.

• Patent Basics

  How Long Does a Patent Last?

  Twenty years from filing, with three chances to lose it early and several ways to get time back.