Patents are a rip-off

Ignore the recent ads from the patent office. Do not patent any of your ideas. So argues Don Lancaster in Whole Earth Review (Winter '92; subs $33 from PO Box 38, Sausalito, CA 94966, USA, tel 0101 415 332 1716).

'All a patent does is give you the right to sue someone in a ridiculously costly and easily circumvented legal process'

  • Your patent does not prevent others from stealing your ideas. All a patent does is give you the right to sue someone in a civil action at some future date in a ridiculously costly, extremely drawn-out and easily circumvented legal process.

  • Less than one patent in a hundred ever shows a positive cash flow. You get better odds gambling your money away.

  • To bust your patent, all a firm has to do is to find someone somewhere who says it was reasonably obvious to a 'practioner in the field'.

  • Big industry does not buy ideas or patents. Many larger corporations reject any outside invention sumissions. Their expensive in-house research and development could otherwise be at risk should some outside inventor and his lawyer claim 'you stole my idea!'.

    What is the best alternative method for successfully marketing your ideas?

  • Publish all your ideas in a major magazine.

  • Try to set up a royalty agreement in the five per cent range with a small to medium-sized firm able to market and distribute your invention. They must come to you - attracted by your publishing of your ideas.

    'The one and only defence against getting ripped off in any royalty set-up is the expectation that you will be delivering new and better ideas in the future'

  • The one and only defence against getting ripped off in any royalty set-up is the expectation that you will be delivering new and better ideas in the future.

    Editorial postscript

    Based on an item in National Enquirer (USA; Nov. 17th '92) monitored for the Institute by Roger Knights.

    Rommy Revson, creator of a patented fabric hair band called Scunci, has found a clever strategy for protecting her patent. When large companies began marketing look-alike products, she made several lawyers her partners, and told them she would give them a percentage of her income if they succeeded in enforcing her patent. The strategy worked and sales of Scuncio are in the billions.

    You can rate how well you like this idea. Click 0-10 below and press the Submit button.
    Bad Idea <- 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 -> Great Idea
    As of 05/28/96, 5 people have rated this page with the overall rating (0-100%) of: 88%
    Previous / Next / 1993 Social Inventions Journal Contents