Sunday, July 15, 2012

A list from "Patents and startups" Reverse Brainstorming session.


1. Don't understand patent claims.
2. Getting a patent is too expensive.
3. The process takes a long time.
4. "Patents protect" mindset.
5. Lack of IP portfolio-tinking.
6. Lack of probability-of-success thinking.
7. Wrong causality chain in high-tech vs pharma (H2O)
8. Taliban approach to fixing the patent system.
9. Lack of invention development skills.
10. Limited access to top lawyers.
11. Can't evaluate patent lawyers' work.
12. Business and IP strategy not aligned.
13. Don't know what's in the portfolio.
14. Expensive to re-analyze the portfolio.
15. Very few patents are useful.
16. Fundamentally, the system is  not set up to be efficient (jury trial).
17. No consistent pruning of the portfolio.
18. No time to work on the portfolio.
19. No extra money to invest in IP dev.
20. Late start on IP dev.
21. Rush to file ASAP with low quality ("first to file")
22. Don't understand the importance of prosecution dates (filing, publication, provisional, international, etc.)
23. No alignment with VC's exit strategies.
24. Flash of genius approach to what to file.
25. "Too simple" to file.
26. "Can't compete with large companies patent and money endowments"
27. Hard to predict the value of a patent/portfolio.
28. Precious resources wasted on useless patents. 
29. Hard to get a fair value on the market.
30. Impatience with the process (Short-term thinking).
31. Startups are transient (difficult to invest long-term).
32. Incremental inventions are treated the same as breakthroughs
33. Fail before the market matures.
34. Prices for patents are kept secret.
35. Difficult to compare patents.
36. Difficult to assign value.
37. Difficult/expensive to match to a product.
38. Hard to bet against yourself.
39. Overconfidence bias in strategy/execution.
40. Hi-tech VCs don't value patents.
41. Poor understanding of IP licensing model.
42. "Open Innovation means free."
43. False sense of security with one or two patent apps.

TBC

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