It is not as easy to make money from your invention idea as it sounds. Firstly you need to be able to know how to invent a product in order to make money out of it. Getting a patent alone will not guarantee a financial benefit or a commercial success, rather it requires a bit more work before you finally start milking benefits from your patented idea or invention.
Also, sometimes your licensing strategy changes a lot depending upon the alignment of your patent strategy with bigger goals of your business and your goal type. You can consider availing of Patent Services USA to get patent-related assistance at your doorstep. This way you will be allotted a dedicated patent attorney who will handle all your tasks. Another option is you can do the job yourself if you know the process and the technicalities.
In this article, we will try to discuss the ways that may be helpful to you in making money from your invention idea. So without wasting any time, let’s get into it:
1. Converting Inventions into Products
You can turn a patent into a financial asset by producing the invention and selling it in the market. This means after creating a prototype and filing a patent, you need to create a product to sell in the market to make money.
Ask yourself these questions before manufacturing the product:
What is the type of product you would be building?
Is the product needful for the targeted audience?
What will be the pattern or model of manufacturing?
Addressing these questions is very important before investing a huge amount. It is always better to take a logical decision when it comes to product planning and development. This is because wasting money and time on failed experiments, again and again, is not worth it.
2. Patent Licensing
Under patent licensing, you transfer your patent rights to a party that can use them for making or selling a product or a service. As far as the types are concerned, there are primarily two types of patent licensing which are described as under:
Exclusive Licensing
Under exclusive licensing, all the ownership gets transferred to the licensee from the owner of the patent.
Non-exclusive licensing
Under non-exclusive licensing, the patent owner /licensor can also produce the invention along with the licensee.
There are a lot of advantages of patent licensing such as:
The process converts your invention idea into a viable product
Lack of funding or resources will not be a barrier in stopping your invention from going to the market.
You can make a fortune with the trust and brand value of the licensee
Your licensee can sell your product internationally faster than you would have ever imagined
Remember that conducting market research is very important in order to ascertain whether the licensee will use the patent to manufacture and not just to buy out the prevailing competition in the market. This could help you in getting the best price for your patent. Also, you can consider advertising the patent licensing before finalizing a license so that you can grab the best opportunity.
3. Using patent as collateral for a bank loan
Some people might not know but patents can also be used sometimes when seeking a bank loan. It is a fairly common practice opted by many key players earlier, for example, General Motors, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, etc. are some big companies who have done the same. It has got an additional benefit too that mortgaging a patent would pop up a possibility that it could be acquired by a big company that wants to avoid litigation or to maintain its competitive edge.
Patent owners are keener in leveraging their resource’s value rather than licensing it when they mortgage patents. So if you can use the patent as collateral for a bank loan it implies that the bank agrees to the fact that your patent holds a significant value. Many companies who are looking to acquire patents can get attracted to your patent due to its positive impact.
4. Selling a patent
In case if you are not interested in licensing your patent, then you consider selling your patent for a handsome amount. There are chances that the market for your intellectual property is declining or the technology is getting obsolete gradually. This might be the right time that you sell off your patent.
You must ask yourself the following question before selling your patent:
Are there any means to further develop your invention that maximize the value of your invention even more?
Can you avail the option of patent pooling?
Are you running out of ways to make licensing profitable?
After addressing all these questions, you must decide exactly where your investment must be sold. You can avail of Patent Services USA if you are unable to figure out these questions.
5. Selling the Patent to a Business that is Expanding in Your Country
There are patent owners out there in the market that keep an eye on the foreign companies that are expanding their operations globally.
Patents are location-specific, which means that you will be needing a patent in each country where you want to safeguard your idea. So when a company expands its operations in some other country it will often put efforts into acquiring patents in the new country to safeguard itself from suing against patent infringement. These expanding that are expanding in some other countries often look for individual patent owners who are willing to sell their patents. A very good example is Xiaomi that acquired a lot of patent assets through its process of global expansion.
Conclusion
In the end, let’s conclude by saying that getting a patent is a very tedious job and should be done by someone who has the relevant amount of experience. That’s the reason it is better to avail of professional help if you have zero knowledge regarding how to invent a product. Your patent should reward you financially whether you use it to license it to someone else, launch a product, or sell it.
Letting your patent sit around is a bad practice. Secondly, the ways that we have discussed to earn money have their own set of pros and cons and you could choose the way (or a combination) whichever suits you the best. Because at the end of the day you are the one who has to decide – which way works best for you.
Top comments (0)