WHAT DO STARTUPS NEED TO KNOW ABOUT PATENT LAW

BY JEFFREY SCHOX

SCHOX PATENT GROUP

Who am I?

Angel Investor

Patent Attorney

Professor

Entrepreneur

Why build a patent portfolio? What is patentable? How to identify inventions? When to file a patent application? Who to choose as a patent attorney?

• enforce against a competitor

!

Why build a patent portfolio?

• enforce against a competitor

!

Why build a patent portfolio?

*Takes 2-3 years to get a patent, and costs $3-5M to enforce.

*

• enforce against a competitor

!

Why build a patent portfolio?

• increase valuation

• deter patent infringement lawsuit

What is patentable?

General Concept

Specific ProductNot

Valuable

Not Patentable

What is patentable?

Valuable, Patentable Invention

How to identify inventions?filed should have filed

Wrongly filed patent applications: wastes money, wastes time, and

teaches inventions.

How to identify inventions?filed should have filed

Omitted patent applications: lost valuation and

increased vulnerabilities

How to identify inventions?

1. incentivize engineers to identify inventions 2. evaluate in isolation from other inventions

!

1. determine strategy (CEO, CFO, CTO) 2. uncover inventions

Bottom Up

Top Down

When to file a patent application?

APPPRV

Alpha

Beta

DFM

Who to choose as a patent attorney?

ProximityLaw

Business

Technology

Book on Amazon Stanford Lectures on iTunes Presentations on YouTube

angel.co/jschox

RESOURCES