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This might be slightly controversial but i thought i would put down some of my own thoughts on whether to patent an idea or not.
Putting this into perspective, having designed hundreds of bits of outdoor kit. There have only been two occasions where i felt that a patent may have been an good option. On both occasions the cost of obtaining a patent, would of been higher than the profit generated by the product. Patents are not always a good idea.
My first reservation about patents is the cost. Although there not that expensive to start with, the bills can soon to start to tot up. A UK patent will cost around £1500, and you can easy add an extra zero to this the more countries you want to protect. So when you start the ball rolling, you need to be sure where it will stop.
My second reservation is that they are not totally ironclad, lets say you invent a new type of waterproof zip like Barny in last years colab competition. You could bet your bottom dollar that the likes of YKK and RiRi would find some way to get round the patent. If you dont have the money to defend the patent robustly then you could spend even more money and still be no better off.
By biggest reservation with them is that when you trawl though the millions of patents many of them are just rubbish ideas. Why go to the hassle a patenting a rubbish idea, that someone is never going to buy it. Just because it has a patent doesn’t mean that it is good design or concept. The Ikea Kipplin sofa doesn’t have patent yet Ikea probably make buckets full of cash from it. If the best product is presented to the consumer at the right price and the right place and promoted well then it’s got a good chance of selling. If you burden the product with a load of patent costs you might have to charge more for the product and then have no chance of selling it.
I’m not saying patents dont have there place, just that you need to be sure what the patent is doing for you.
Cheers
Nick
