You can’t know everything. You don’t have the time, nor the resources, nor the capacity (regardless of what your mom told you). So, you do what everybody does – you focus on the essential must-know. Your home address, your kids’ allergies, and your spouse’ birthday date (because, you know, God forbids you forget).
Everting else? You do your best in the situation, then hope for the best, then leave it alone and move to the next thing. There is always something else.
Now, what if you HOPE where you really should KNOW? If you take the wrong bus, the worst you can be is farther than your destination and minus the cost of the ride. If you go to the wrong show, you can get out at intermission minus the cost of the ticket.
What if you HOPE that your IP portfolio is the best it can be, where you really should KNOW that this is indeed the case? If your hopes are based, then OK, but if your hopes are not based, wouldn’t you want to KNOW that ASAP?
Don’t wait for a Patent Examiner to tell you your patent application is missing data, your experiments are missing controls, your claims are missing written support, and your inventions are mis-defined – Once S/he does, your patent application has already been published so everyone in the world can see, and chances are you already paid an aggregated amount of ~ 15 to 25K USD for this dubious pleasure.
TL;DR: Why hoping your IP is solid isn’t good enough
- You wouldn’t “hope” your kids’ meds are right—you’d double check. Do the same with your IP.
- Acting on assumptions instead of verified IP strategy can cost $15–25K and expose your invention publicly.
- Founders and investors should know their IP portfolio is strong—before regulators or competitors point out otherwise.
If you are a founder, or an investor, and want to KNOW your IP portfolio is the best it can be, let’s talk. I will save you time, money, and misunderstandings.
