The most important question that can run through the mind of any inventor is how much will he or she be benefited by patenting an invention in terms of monetary aspects. After all, two important factors that any inventor stresses upon are:
- To ensure that they have made a significant contribution to the society through their invention.
- The revenue or the royalty they earn from their invention.
The prime requisite for any invention to be patented is its commercial viability. If the technology of an invention cannot be exploited or exhibited significantly, then there is no point of patenting it. This has been the root cause for failure for many patentable inventions as the inventor of the inventions were unable to exploit them commercially. Commercial exploitation of an invention requires marketing and business management skills which may lack in some inventors. It is always advisable to take help of an experienced professional who can bring out these economic aspects out of a patentable invention. An invention has to have a commercial demand which will facilitate the inventor by fetching royalties from companies or any businesses using the invention of the inventor.
Let us understand how an inventor can make his invention profitable (How can I generate more money by patenting my invention?):
Funding
To launch a product into the market for the first time requires some expenses. If the inventor is affluent, it might not possess any hindrance to him, but most often an inventor will either need to get a loan or convince somebody else to help financially for at least a portion of the project. Many of our government departments (such as the Department of Defense or Energy) do fund to promote research, usually through educational institutions or small amount business loans. An inventor needs to visit the government’s websites to check whether the invention would qualify in any one of the categories put up by one of the government’s departments. Depending on the influence of the invention larger companies may also come forward to fund for the development of an independent inventor’s invention.
Prototypes
The strength of a prototype is immense. A prototype or to tell from a more technical point of view a ‘blueprint’ of the invention may not be a fancy one as the final product would be, but, it would definitely be able to demonstrate that the invention can accomplish its intended purpose. A prototype also determines or helps an investor to have a look as to how serious the inventor is regarding his invention.
Licensing
Licensing is a common way to earn money from a patent. When a patent owner licenses his ideas or intellectual property to another, he grants permission to the licensee to perform certain activities that the patent owner has rights to control such as to sell or make the patented invention. The license may be an exclusive license where the patent owner restricts to license only one party, or it may be non-exclusive where the patent owner grants to the licensee the right to use the intellectual property, but also the licensor or patent owner remains free to exploit the same intellectual property and to allow any number of other licensees to also exploit the same intellectual property. patenting my invention
Selling the Patent
A patent owner might think of selling his patent to other party. By doing this the patent owner would not have to pay maintenance fees to the patent office, pay for litigation, or worry about the economy. Typically, a sale involves more money up front, but no royalties over time. Moreover, in the long run a patent owner would earn more by licensing his product rather than selling it. However, selling patents may prove meaningful to some patent owners because of future economic recessions. To look into the other side of the coin, a licensee may also get into financial trouble at any point of time, declare bankruptcy, and never pay the patent owner the agreed royalties. An inventor needs to carefully judge the pros and cons before deciding on the factor as to whether or not to sell or license his ideas.
All the above factors, if followed holistically can bring considerable monetary gain to the patent owner.
Also Read:
Patent Application Types (India)
Patent Fundamentals: Know Them All!
What are The Crucial Elements of Patent Prosecution in India?
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