Curating a Portfolio

Webinar: IP Due Diligence in Two Questions

There are two questions to ask every time you are dealing with patents: Can you tell if someone infringes? How hard is it to design around your patent? With these two questions, you are 90% of the way there on IP due diligence. Here is my presentation to Band of Angels in October, 2020.

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Terminal Disclaimers – One for the Price of Two

Terminal disclaimers are costly for the client – but an easy money maker for patent attorneys. Terminal disclaimers are where you pay twice to get the same thing. They are a money maker for the USPTO – and your patent attorney.  They should be avoided at all costs.  In most cases, a terminal disclaimer is…

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Startup Funding: Apply for BlueIron Non-Dilutive Funding

BlueIron provides non-dilutive startup funding. BlueIron provides $60K or more non-dilutive startup funding for companies with great inventions. Our model is to invest in the full cost of getting patents for a company, including international (PCT) filing and expediting the patent through the United States Patent and Trademark Office. We fund companies *before* angel or…

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My first invention

My first job out of college was at McDonnell Aircraft in St. Louis.  At the time, we made military fighter jets: the F-15, F-18, and Harrier AV-8B.  I was assigned to a little research group exploring different ways to use thermoplastic composites.  It was there that I had my first “invention.”  I wrote up a…

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Why Marketing Is More Important than Patents

Entrepreneurs have been fed this lie that the first thing they need to do is get a patent, then work on the business. This is a bad strategy. As an investor who finances IP for startups, I want some data to support the investment in patents. The best strategy is to do the marketing first,…

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Inventing and “Feeling It”

It is easy to think you were an inventor when you really were not. When I was an engineer at HP, I wrote up 3-4 invention disclosures before a meeting, where we were going to discuss a new product.  At the meeting, I pitched a couple of the ideas *I had already submitted* for patenting. …

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1% Patent – 99% Execution

As we all know, business is usually 10% idea and 90% execution.  The successful companies rarely have the single best product on the market, but they do have successful execution. Startup companies – and any business with a new product – spend more time doing product market fit than anything else.  Figuring out what the…

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Data Driven Patents

Updated April 2021. The patent system requires that we look ahead and guess the future.  If we are right, there is a huge reward.  This process can be powerfully addictive, as it is the same psychology as lottery tickets. Patents are bets that the marketplace will adopt a technology.  The interesting characteristic is that the…

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