Reader Question of Week: Patent Lawyers
Tuesday August 5, 2003
This week a reader writes in: "do you know of any craft businesses that have patent lawyers that could help me?"
While there may be industry specialized patent lawyers, your best bet is to approach the lawyer patent associations. Try the American Intellectual Property Law Association or the Association of Patent Law Firms.
The question I often ask business owners is,"do you really need a patent?" A patent does not necessarily afford the protection most businesses want. As many regular readers know, I was a director at NordicTrack during its peak years in the mid 90's. During that time, we developed an abdominal machine that brought in tens of millions in sales. In just a matter of six months, a "fly-by-night" company in Floridia had copied our machine in every way, shape, and form.
Instead of pursuing the patent infringement and spending years in court against a company that would dismantle and declare bankruptcy, we instead made sure they did not have retail distribution for their product. Sometimes the best protection comes from creating strategic barriers not legal barriers that may not hold. For more views on patent protection, read: Inc Magazine's "Forget Patents, Says Stanford Lawyer". Also, visit our patent section here on small Business Information.
While there may be industry specialized patent lawyers, your best bet is to approach the lawyer patent associations. Try the American Intellectual Property Law Association or the Association of Patent Law Firms.
The question I often ask business owners is,"do you really need a patent?" A patent does not necessarily afford the protection most businesses want. As many regular readers know, I was a director at NordicTrack during its peak years in the mid 90's. During that time, we developed an abdominal machine that brought in tens of millions in sales. In just a matter of six months, a "fly-by-night" company in Floridia had copied our machine in every way, shape, and form.
Instead of pursuing the patent infringement and spending years in court against a company that would dismantle and declare bankruptcy, we instead made sure they did not have retail distribution for their product. Sometimes the best protection comes from creating strategic barriers not legal barriers that may not hold. For more views on patent protection, read: Inc Magazine's "Forget Patents, Says Stanford Lawyer". Also, visit our patent section here on small Business Information.
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