I should also mention licensing. If you provide an exclusive license to a
company, make sure there is language in the agreement that they will defend
and litigate as well as disclosure and audit rules.
In another life, I provided an exclusive patent license to a large
multinational. It was a 20 year relationship and they even had site offices
at my plant. On one occasion, we jointly presented a new system concept I
designed to one of their major customers under NDA. The room was occupied by
close 50 engineering management types. They loved the presentation and
applauded when we finished. A year later, a patent application is filed by
that company containing one of the sub-systems verbatim. I complained to my
licensee and I'm told to let it go. "Do you have any idea of how many $$$$$
of x,y, and z they buy from us annually?" was the response. This type of
thing including "legal" blackmail is routine when the numbers get big
enough.
Best.
Anthony J. Cesaroni
President/CEO
Cesaroni Technology/Cesaroni Aerospace
http://www.cesaronitech.com/
(941) 360-3100 x101 Sarasota
(905) 887-2370 x222 Toronto
-----Original Message-----
From: arocket-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:arocket-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of qbert@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Wednesday, September 30, 2015 1:28 AM
To: arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [AR] Re: Fwd: Patents - Was Re: Turbopump Progress
I second Anthony's opinion, and I'm talking from experience.
Way back in the day when I actually worked for a living, my business partner
and I developed a process to make grains into chicken feed at a price that
the regular mills could not touch. It was natural and better in every way.
Some 8 months after applying for several patents, Cdn, US, Japanese, Korean,
and a few other I don't remember, we find our process in a Korean science
journal that was the same as ours but used different devices for the actual
process. To make a long story short, 50K in the hole, nobody got a patent
and the Japanese and Korean hobby farms have been using the process ever
since.
Robert
At 09:11 PM 9/29/2015, you wrote:
Tip of the iceberg. You can spend a lot more money than that to get a
patent granted. Especially if it anything to do with anything relevant
to the USML. The USPTO can and often does share the application with
the DoD and other branches if they deem it relevant. Sometimes, nothing
happens but sometimes things do. The back and fort can be quite
consuming in terms of time and money. If everything goes your way, you
get a patent and a nice plaque to hang on the wall. Time will only tell
if it will make a return on your investment or just end up as a plaque
on the wall. Now if it's a good patent and someone decides to violate
your patent, you can expect to spend over $100k to litigate it in many
cases and you better or walk away.
On the other hand, if you are a U.S. person and the DoD digs their
heels in, there is a rarely used process that makes "classifying"
your patent possible, in which case it may never publish for decades
and you'll probably never know if it's been violated.
I have a wall covered with plaques. About 1 in 10 pays off as a general
rule so if you want to play, be prepared to pay. Don't forget about
those maintenance fees and foreign filings either. $$$$ One other
thing, if it's ITAR/USML related, you require certificate from the
state department to file in an ITAR free country who can do with it as
they please otherwise. Have fun litigating that assuming you even get
the patent. It took me 7 years to get my first Japanese patent. They
publish the initial application and let everyone do a work around then
finally grant it. Pretty patent though. Not a plaque. Looks like a
beautiful menu from an expensive sushi restaurant.
Just my experience FWIW.
Best.
Anthony
Sent from my iPhone
On Sep 29, 2015, at 10:31 PM, David Summers <dvidsum@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:Chicago, IL 60611
Agreed, but we are already past that point... we've actually been
funded for several years. If I can get a patent for 5 grand, I'd be
very happy. My last work in getting patents cost me $20K!
(I live in Chicago, the land of expensive lawyers)
Thanks!
David Summers
Crew Marketing
The John Hancock Center | 875 N. Michigan Avenue, Suite 3660 |
P 312.994.2349 | F 312.994.2382 | dsummers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
On Tue, Sep 29, 2015 at 9:07 PM, Monroe L. King Jr.
<monroe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
My advice take that 5 grand for starters and use it to fly and
visit potential investors. Go to conferences and meet people.
Things like that
Use it to make connections that will land you and investor.
Landing an investor is more about connections.
Just my 2 cents.
Unless you have something really good and the investor has an
interest in backing your claim. Because patents take money to
protect. If it's not worth protecting then it's pretty much worthless.
