Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso — your daily shot of startup funding and investing.

Investors look for some protection over the idea. Patents and trade secrets can help.

Half the value of a patent is for show, to investors.

In practice, it’s difficult to use patents as the sole means for protecting your business from the competition, but it can help.

If you have patents, investors want to know what was filed and when. Was it a provisional patent, or a design patent, or a utility patent?

No one expects you to have awarded patents for utility or design patents, as the process typically takes over three years to complete.

If you don’t have any patents, it’s advisable to file a number of provisional patents so you can tell investors ‘we have patent pending technology’.

One advantage of provisional patents is that it gives you a year to figure out if patents can provide any reasonable protection and then file for a full patent.

You don’t have to pursue those patents if it doesn’t turn out to make business sense.

Thank you for joining us for the Startup Funding Espresso where we help startups and investors connect for funding.

Let’s go startup something today.
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Disclaimer:
Hall T Martin is the director of Investor Connect, which is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to the education of investors for early-stage funding. All opinions expressed by Hall and podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of Investor Connect. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon for the basis of investment decisions.