Can you patent an idea and sell it [Beginner's Guide]

Last updated : Sept 13, 2022

Can you patent and sell an idea?

If you ask a patent attorney if you can sell an idea, the answer is likely to be some version of no. This is because when a patent attorney hears the question they immediately think about inventions. You cannot patent an idea—that is a well-established and unassailable legal truth.

Should I patent my idea before selling?

No. You are not required to obtain a patent in order to sell a product or service embodying your invention. Many products and services are sold that are not patented. A U.S. patent provides the right to stop others from making marketing, selling, or importing your invention in the United States.

How much do patent ideas sell for?

If the corporation makes an offer, it will typically be anywhere from $50 thousand to $8 million, and can be higher. On the other hand, an inventor trying to simply market an issued patent to corporations, is likely to get anywhere from $5,000 to $35,000.

Can I sell my idea for an invention?

If you happen to find a manufacturer that is interested in your invention, there are usually two options. You can sell your invention idea, or you can outright sell the invention itself for one large lump sum as compensation for your idea. The second option is to enter a licensing agreement.

Can a manufacturer steal your idea?

Ideas alone are not protected under intellectual property law. There are two primary ways that you would be able to sue the company for stealing your idea. The first is if you did, in fact, reduce the idea to a protectable form before telling the company about it.

Do patents make money?

A patent which grants ownership of an invention, but it won't pay you. There are a few ways you can generate a profit from your idea. A patent is an important document which grants ownership to an invention. However, simply owning a patent won't generate a dime for the inventor.

What is a poor man's patent?

A poor man's patent is essentially writing out a description of your invention and then mailing that written description to yourself. This postmarked envelope supposedly acts to create the date of your invention as the date this written description was postmarked.

How much does it cost to get a patent?

A patent can cost from $900 for a do-it-yourself application to between $5,000 and $10,000+ with the help of patent lawyers. A patent protects an invention and the cost of the process to get the patent will depend on the type of patent (provisional, non-provisional, or utility) and the complexity of the invention.

How long does a patent last?

A U.S. utility patent, explained above, is generally granted for 20 years from the date the patent application is filed; however, periodic fees are required to maintain the enforceability of the patent.

Who will buy my patent?

• Free Marketplaces. Patent Mall. PatentAuction.com.
• Paid Marketplaces. Yet2.com. IAM Market.
• Patent Brokerage Marketplaces. ICAP Patent Brokerage. IP Trader.
• Programs for Patent Owners. Marathon Patent Group.

How do you sell an idea to a company without them stealing it?

You can sell an idea to a company without a patent. You need a way to stop them from stealing the idea from you. One way to do that without a patent is with a nondisclosure agreement, aka NDA. The NDA would limit the company's ability to use your idea without paying you for it.

What is the most valuable patent of all time?

Alexander Graham Bell was granted a patent that recognized him as the sole inventor of the telephone, US patent no. 174,465, eventually became known as “the single most valuable patent ever issued in the history of the world”.

How do I sell my idea?

1. 1) Research Your Idea. The first step in selling your idea is to gather as much information as possible.
2. 2) Establish Ownership.
3. 3) Test Your Idea.
4. 4) Identify Target Companies.

How do I sell a patent idea?

1. Attending trade shows.
2. Contacting companies in relevant industries with sales offers.
3. Advertising through the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

How can I patent my idea for free?

There are two ways you can actually patent an invention for free, sort of. If you cannot afford an agent or attorney, look to the Patent Pro Bono Program or the Law School Clinic Certification Program, both provided by the USPTO. The Patent Pro Bono Program pairs registered patent agents or attorneys with inventors.

How do I know if my idea is patentable?

1. Patent Public Search.
2. USPTO Patent Full-Text and Image Database (PatFT)
3. USPTO Patent Application Full-Text and Image Database (AppFT)
4. Global Dossier.
5. Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR)
6. Public Search Facility.
7. Patent and Trademark Resource Centers (PTRCs)

Can someone steal my idea if I have a patent pending?

What Is Patent Pending Infringement? As soon as you file a patent application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), your invention is "Patent Pending." Once your application is submitted, nobody can steal, sell, or use your invention without your permission.

Does my company own my ideas?

Typically, employers are entitled to all intellectual property created at/for their business, unless there exists a contract stating otherwise.

Do inventors get rich?

You can also get more money if your invention turns out to be popular. However, you get less money at first in exchange for that leverage. For instance, a first-time inventor can expect a royalty rate of around 3 percent, and an experienced inventor may see up to 25 percent of the gross profit.

How do I invent something and sell it?

1. Step 1: Document It. Simply having an "idea" is worthless — you need to have proof of when you came up with the invention ideas.
2. Step 2: Research It.
3. Step 3: Make a Prototype.
4. Step 4: File a Patent.
5. Step 5: Market Your Invention.

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welcome back in our last video we talked about how ideas are worthless and one of the ways that you can actually make traction and action on your ideas is to get a patent there are lots of different types of patents I have six different patents I've filed provisional patents I've been sued by patent holders I've had patent trolls come after me I've deposed about patents and I'm here to tell you the pros and cons of getting a patent and what the process is if you're an inventor and you have an idea and you want to file for a patent so these are patent cubes from my work at Microsoft you can see thank you for your contribution a little bit about the patent law icon and Microsoft would give these as awards for people for what are called utility patents utility patents are the most basic type of patent and they protect a new type of idea or concept a novel way of doing something and these these particular patents are for work that I did on the Windows XP operating system there are four different types of patents utility patents are the most common the second type of patent is called a provisional patent and a provisional patent kind of hold to your place in line it prevents someone else from jumping ahead of you in taking that idea provisional patent is a lower-cost way of getting a patent the third type of patent is called a design patent in a design patent protects the design the look and feel of something it's not necessarily an invention but it protects how something looks and how something feels so you can imagine the look and feel of a particular car or a particular phone or particular shoe lots of companies that have a particular look and feel for their products will file a design patent to prevent knockoffs from being produced the last patent is called the plant patent unless you're building Audry - you don't really have to worry about that believe it baby it don't now if you're gonna file for a patent you're probably gonna want a patent lawyer filing patents is pretty complicated in terms of the documents that you need to produce the documents are formatted in a very particular way and a patent attorney whose experience with filing patents is going to save you time and money in the process that being said filing patents does tend to be expensive and patents can really rack up in terms of the cost lots of patent processes may cost tens of thousands of dollars so just be aware of some of these costs before jumping in and filing a patent now a couple ways that you can save money on filing a patent is by doing a little prep work before you go to your patent attorney so try to document what your invention does and how it does it write down your thoughts in plain English so it's easy to understand and if you're able to draw and illustrate some of them of how your invention works that's often helpful as well another way to save costs is by filing as what's called a micro entity if you're a solo independent inventor or if you're part of a very small company you can file for micro entity status and that saves you a little bit of money in terms of filing fees with a patent office the patent process itself can take a lot of back-and-forth even once you file a patent you can expect your patent to be rejected and then there's back and forth between your patent attorney and the patent examiner the entire process can often take as long as two or three years so just be prepared for a longer wait so because patents cost a lot of money and they take a lot of time it may not be the best thing for every small business so if you've truly invented something novel and unique something that's really unique and not out there then a patent may make sense it may protect your business from having knockoffs people stealing your idea but in many cases a patent can be a distraction so let's say you go through this process and you get a patent at the end of the day the patent is just a piece of paper and so the question is what do you want to do with this piece of paper there are three main strategies with patents the first is defensive patents and so with a defensive patent you really take that piece of paper and put it in a drawer you're honestly not doing anything you're keeping it there for defense if your company gets sued for some reason in the future you can go into that drawer and use that patent for defense so if someone's suing you for patent infringement you can say ah but I have this other patent it and I could sue you for patent infringement so why don't we all walk away and lots of companies have giant patent portfolios purely for defense to prevent other companies from suing them for patent infringement the other way to use a patent is for offense and that means going after other people who are infringing on your patent but be aware if that other company that you're suing and going after it has their own patent portfolio for defense a they could end up suing you back and B if they do see you back they could invalidate your patent making it completely worthless the third way to use a patent is for licensing and so if you're inventing a product or an idea and you don't actually want to build that product or idea but you want to license that invention to other companies to then go off and build that idea for you that's another way you can charge your licensing fee for your patent so depending on your company early-stage startups may not get a ton of early benefit from filing patents because using them defensively or offensively can be a real distraction to the core business small companies only have a limited set of resources so you may not want to spend those resources on either offensive patents or defensive patent portfolios if you do have a really amazing idea you can file a provisional patent and that kind of holds your place in line until you get better capitalization and more money and so that buys you a year of time to really figure out if you want to go file that full patent if you really have a unique design a unique visual approach to your product you can also file a design patent and those tend to be less expensive as well either way design patents provisional patents utility patents to help you set your company apart in terms of the design the products and the vision of what you're trying to build and I hope patents help you in your quest to build an amazing company I'm Gregg Ray's I focus on technology design and development and if you like that sort of thing hit subscribe thanks so much for joining me till the next one you

Thanks for your comment Donny Mayenschein, have a nice day.
- Yvette Mcneff, Staff Member

welcome to the patins home series what do you know about patents where our professionals walk you through the fundamentals of the complex patent system offering information every inventor should know how do I sell my idea it all starts with a flash of brilliance you come up with a new idea that solves a problem that you've had for years and you want to take it from the idea stage to a product and profit from it of course you need to protect your idea you need to keep it a secret in fact you shouldn't discuss it with anyone until you file a patent application which will preserve your rights to the idea the first thing you need to do is document your idea create a written description of how to make it and use it in a bound notebook this written description should include examples in drawing your written description may be the evidence you need should a legal dispute arise over ownership now that you've documented your idea communicate that idea to a competent patent attorney you can trust a patent attorney will help you protect your idea by filing a patent application your patent attorney should answer any and all of your questions with regard to the legalities of protecting your idea and helping you understand the differences between a patent a copyright and a trademark once you have your idea protected with a patent application you can take the next step in getting your product to market inventors have two choices you can manufacture the product yourself or sell the idea to a company in exchange for a lump sum payment or a percentage of each sale which is commonly known as a royalty agreement if you sell your idea to a company you can expect to take a small percentage of the profits whereas if you manufacture it yourself you take the lion's share of the profits but you also assume all of the risk you the inventor have to wear many hats to be able to manufacture market and distribute the product beware of invention submission companies that claim to do all of these things for one low price don't expect someone else to do everything for you you should learn all aspects of the industry so that you can turn your idea into a product on a shelf in a store thank you for watching hopefully our series has been helpful to you remember you can hire us to present our full course on patents to your employees or organization if there is a topic you are still unsure of it's likely other inventors have the same questions as you visit our forum page on patent home.com to ask questions if your question is picked for a topic of a future video series we will give you a free patent search

Thanks Rudy your participation is very much appreciated
- Yvette Mcneff

About the author

Yvette Mcneff

I've studied object-oriented programming at Alliant International University in San Diego and I am an expert in law enforcement. I usually feel happy. My previous job was caption writer I held this position for 19 years, I love talking about baseball and writing. Huge fan of Rodney Dangerfield I practice broomball and collect plants.