|
Patents are a rich man's game, with just a few poor lottery winners to keep the suckers spending. On average, it takes $14 million in annual sales to defend one patent. Patent lawyers never work on speculation; they are leeches on the corporations as well, forcing them into a turf war that requires more lawyers. I like James Lancaster's advice: Get to market first with what you can, and publish everything you can't. You might be offered a fat salary to shut up.
I'm entirely sympathetic to the plight of the inventor and developer; I just don't think patents are the way to get paid. Information wants to get around and cross-fertilize, so I'd like to see automatic tax credits for people whose ideas get copied. Until then, it's "keep the day job" for most of us. The one thing a patent might have done for me is to encourage people to copy my successful integration of chassis and suspension into a few composite moldings.
|