Connecticut Technology & Intellectual Property

Any start-up tech company, entrepreneur or inventor who or which believes that he/she/it has a patentable invention should go check out a recent entry at the IPWatchdog blog  published by Gene Quinn (“Bad Patent Advice from the Wall Street Journal“).  In the article, Quinn critiques some “patent” advice given by Alexandra Levit in a recent column published in the Wall Street Journal (See column here).  More than just critiquing, Quinn provides some very valuable insight to those with the next “great” idea:

If I had a dollar for every time I received an e-mail from someone saying that they have a life-changing invention, or world-saving invention, I would be able to retire.  The story goes, as in this case, my invention is critical, essential, life-altering and I know without a doubt that it will succeed.  These messages then ALWAYS go on to say, I just don’t have the money, but those with money would get a great deal if they would partner with me and fund my invention.  Sometimes it even goes further and implies that anyone who is wealthy would be lucky to get such a great opportunity.  I try and preach to inventors that if they want to be taken seriously they need to keep it real, and this is an enormous red-flag and serious people will flee from you with this story.  The truth is ideas and inventions are everywhere, and if you are not willing to put up your own money that says you don’t believe in your own invention enough, so why should I?  Finally, inventors without “skin in the game” invariably walk away because they have nothing invested.  This story is not taken seriously by anyone in the industry and if you are serious and have an invention you cannot lead with this type of pitch.

Even though I’m not a patent attorney, I do practice in the “soft” IP fields (e.g. copyrights, trademarks, etc.), and, given the focus of my practice (technology, and, in particular, tech start-ups), I need to be familiar with patent principles.  Given that, I would say that Mr. Quinn’s insights are spot-on…more often than not the “inventor” wants all the riches without any of the sacrifices.  In a sense, the reason why an inventor/entrepreneur/start-up gets off the ground and is successful is the fact that they have their heads in the clouds.  They’re creative people with innovative solutions.  However, at some point, it’s necessary to have some reality checks, which is why having competent legal/financial/business counsel is so important.  I often tell my clients that a good lawyer may sometimes be perceived as the ultimate kill-joy….but in the long run, they’ll be thankful for such pessimism.

-Gregg J. Lallier