Evan Carmichael explains why inventors need patents to license ideas to manufacturers. Without protection, companies can copy your invention and pay you nothing. A provisional patent costs less and gives you a year to test whether the idea will actually sell before filing a full patent.
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Do I need a patent? So I had a great question from one of my YouTube viewers, Adarsh. Love you guys. And Adarsh wrote in to say, thank you so much, Evan. That's great guidance from your side. As far as a patent is concerned, is it a good idea to officially get the patent? I know there's pros and cons, but are there other ways possible as well? I feel like one can go raw with one's idea to set a deal with someone who feels they're in need of such an idea, then a smartly designed proposal may be plain wonders. Am I right? So basically, to sum up, do I need a patent or can I just go in with a great pitch and a great proposal? Here's the thing, Adarsh, this is a great question. It really depends on what your goal is, because a lot of inventors get screwed out of money for their inventions because they make bad business decisions. They go in without a patent. Here's what's going to happen. I don't know what your product is. I don't know what your idea is. Say you Say you have a new kind of headlight for a car, okay? This is the best kind of headlight ever. You've invented this new headlight. The way that inventors will typically make the most amount of money and to get this product out there is to license it to a car manufacturing company. It's not to go out and try to build the headlights yourself and then try to sell them to the Home Depots of the world. It's to get in the actual car manufacturing, get a deal done, And every time they use your headlight, they're paying you a royalty. That's the best way to do it. And then you can go on inventing something else. And you're paid every time they sell a car with your headlight. So here's the challenge though. So that's the goal for a lot of inventors, okay? The challenge is when you go and you talk to a car company, if you just go with a proposal, they're gonna say, "Wow, it's a great idea," right? If they actually like it, "Wow, it's a great idea. Do you have a patent?" If you say no, they're just gonna do it themselves. Why do they need you? They have a whole team of engineers. They're gonna say, okay, engineers, go build this, and you're gonna be cut out of the deal. And this happens all the time, and inventors get screwed out of deals, out of money, because the companies that they sell to realize, hey, we could just do this ourselves, we don't need this guy. The only thing that protects you is the patent. Now on top of that, here's what's gonna happen. They say, "Do you have a patent?" "Yes, I have a patent." "Oh, great." As soon as you leave the room, if they really like your idea, they're gonna turn to their technical guys and say, "How can we get around this patent? Is there a way to build this headlight and not use his patent? Can we get around it somehow?" And if they can find a way, they're probably gonna do it. And again, that's cynical, that, that kind of sucks, but that's how a lot of these things go down. And unless you have the patent, you're not protected. It's great to think that if I put my idea out there and, you know, people love it, they're gonna want to hire me, they're gonna pay me for it. That's not how it usually works for a lot of inventors, and a lot of inventors end up becoming super jaded, super unhappy, because they may even see their inventions take off and somebody's making millions off of it, and they're living at the poverty line because they didn't get the patent for it and they can't enforce it and they didn't make good business decisions. So I don't want that to be you. If you have a great idea that you think can work with a big company, then you need to have the patent to protect yourself. Otherwise, they're gonna go right around you. Now, in terms of steps, patents are expensive, right? Like, you have to really believe that this is something that can change the world. But your first step can be getting a provisional patent, and it's a lot cheaper, and it gives you basically a year to go out and prove that you can commercialize this. And you have a year to go out and try to sell it, year to go and try to make some money off of it. Before deciding to get the full patent or not. So if I were you, if you had a great business idea, you have a great invention that you've made that can change the world, go get the patent and protect yourself because that is what's going to help bring you the money. Believe. For those of you watching, let me know what you think. Did you get a patent? Are you thinking about a patent? Leave a comment below, I'd love to hear your story. If you like this video, thumbs up below. Click on my face, subscribe to the channel. Thank you so much. I'll see you soon.
