Transcripts

Mike Carruthers:
You hear a lot today about people wanting to protect their intellectual property, what does that mean?

Michael Lechter:
Anytime somebody solves a problem, they've got potential intellectual property - think about it, if you solve a problem, chances are that other people are going to have encountered that problem.

Patent attorney Michael Lechter, author of the book Protecting Your #1 Asset…

And if you come up with a good solution, and you can get the exclusive rights to that solution you can have a huge advantage in the marketplace.

So if you have an invention or come up with a better way of doing something and want to make money at it, you need to protect your rights - which typically means filing a patent application, and until you do that be careful who you talk to.

Public disclosure or public use or use in the normal course of business starts the clock and in the United States, you've got one year from when that clock starts to get the patent application on file or you lose your rights. Now, outside of the United States it's even worse; in many countries if there's a public disclosure, then you can't get patent protection - period!

Even if you're just a little guy, if you have a patent your idea is protected. But, how well you're protected depends on how well the patent is written.

The problem is that a lot of the little guys got patents on the cheap, they didn't do them right. And unfortunately if they're not written right, they're not worth the paper they're written on.

You can link to Michael's website from ours: somethingyoushouldknow.net - I'm Mike Carruthers and that's Something You Should Know.