This Blog, although not legal advice (see a lawyer!), includes specific practical advice about how companies and individuals with good ideas can maximize patent protection and/or services with any given budget – from zero on up. The first blogs will focus on: Budget invention protection: How to get the BEST BANG for the budget, and this blog will begin to give pointers about Selecting Patent Advisors.
The three most important areas in “Best Bang” selecting of patent advisors are to ensure:
1) Up-front fixed charges;
2) Tactical toolkit with enough variety for any budget; and
3) Technical and business creativity.
Your patent advisor must:
1) not charge you for initial learning about your invention and business goals;
2) quote in writing an up-front exact fixed charge for a specified service “job” (no “hourly billing” or “nickel/diming” e.g., about copies, stamps, travel, meetings, phone calls, etc.);
3) collaborate in setting a fixed charge in line with your budget amount by modifying (by reducing or expanding) the scope of the services;
4) have a tactical arsenal (a coming Patentdoc blog will deal with this “arsenal” in detail) with enough variety to best match the business goals relating to the invention to any given budget;
5) permit you to set a budget plan specified over a given day-to-year time frame in terms of (a) total budget and (b) available cash flow versus timeframe;
6) take the time and have the ability to fully understand (a) your invention in all its aspects and (b) your optimum “scope of work” level for your budget; and
7) specify (or collaborate to specify) the level of client co-operation relied on in quoting prices and dates of the services.
Lastly, you should try to avoid:
1) open-ended agreements
2) oral agreements
3) hourly billing
4) “estimates” that are not absolutely fixed in price
5) “costs” charges that are not fixed or identified explicitly
6) services that do not specify finish dates
This blog will be updated regularly with expansions and other topics related to BEST BANG for hard-times budgets.
Copyright by Patentdoc June 26 , 2009
