Financing a Patent Portfolio

What Risk Is BlueIron Taking When Financing A Patent?

BlueIron is taking several risks when financing a patent. BlueIron is taking the risk that the patent will even issue. BlueIron is making an investment in researching the invention, writing the patent, and getting the patent through the patent office.  If BlueIron fails to get a patent, you can walk away from the deal at…

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BlueIron is Changing the Legal Industry

BlueIron was formed in response to a weakness in the way patents are prepared.  My personal experience was that I needed a patent attorney’s advice and experience – and I paid for it – but he had continually refused to give it to me. It wasn’t until after I took the patent bar and began…

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Loans for Your Patents

Yes, you can borrow against your patents. BlueIron can provide loans of $2 to 50M or more using only your patents as collateral. Your company is based on your creative ideas, which you have protected with your patents. But if those patents have value, can I loan against them? Yes, you can! BlueIron has an…

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Investment Grade Patents Do Not Have “Broad Claims”

Broad patents can hurt you. Inventors like to think that their patents are “broad” and somehow that is good.  It is not. The risks with broad patents are that they are more easily invalidated, but it is also a sales pitch that patent attorneys use to make more money. Narrow patents are bad, too. Narrow…

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Financing Patents Is Actually CHEAPER Than Paying a Patent Attorney

Financing patents through BlueIron is actually cheaper than paying as you go with a conventional patent attorney. This is because the cost of capital for startup companies is so high. Pepperdine’s business school publishes the annual Private Capital Markets Report, which shows that the average cost of capital for Angel or VC funded companies in…

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Should I Get A Patent Before Talking To Customers?

No. As an investor in patents, I am willing to wait for the Second Patent. BTW, if you need to tell someone your invention when you are doing customer discovery, you are doing it wrong. In my business of financing patents for startup companies, I am usually willing to pass on the First Patent for…

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How Much Does It Cost To File A Patent?

How much does it cost to file a patent?  The US average is about $12k, but the total cost of a patent is closer to $60k. Have you been quoted much less? There are plenty of patent attorneys who quote much, much less than $12,000 to draft a patent application. But beware. One of the…

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Patent Enforcement Insurance Makes Your Company Valuable

Why should I get a patent? I don’t have enough money to enforce it. Many startup companies don’t bother with patents because they don’t think they can enforce them.  And they are right.  A patent lawsuit can be very expensive, and the game of enforcement is really a big game of chicken: both sides are…

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What Does A Quality Patent Look Like?

What does a quality patent look like? We evaluate patents every day.  We underwrite investments in intellectual property, either for financing patents before they are written or for providing loans against patents that already exist.  After doing this for a long time, there are certain elements that we evaluate every time we pick up a…

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How Much Do Patent Attorneys Charge

The average patent cost about $60,000, and most of that goes to your patent attorney.  How much do patent attorneys charge?  Be prepared to pay them about $45,000 through the entire process. The patent process involves two major phases. Patent “preparation” is when the patent is originally drafted and filed with the patent office, and…

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