Patents | Defensive Patents | Patent Strategies

Sometimes you have an idea that you could have patented, perhaps should have patented, but never did patent. What can you do? One strategy is to prevent your competitors from patenting it. One of the worst things that can happen is to have a competitor patent something that you could have patented first. In the worse case scenario, the competitor would then ask you to license their patent for your idea!

One way to prevent your competitors from getting patents on your unpatentable ideas is to publish those ideas. And the best place to publish those ideas is in a patent application. Why? Because the United States Patent Office (USPTO) is best at searching patent documents. When your competitors try to patent similar inventions, your unpatentable — but now published — inventions may end up being found by the USPTO and may render your competitors' pending applications unpatentable.