IBM just announced 25 years of patent leadership plus a record setting number of granted patents in one year — 9,043 granted to IBM inventors by the United States Patent and Trademark Office in 2017 — a record-breaking number and the first time a company has been granted more than 9,000 patents in a single year! This 2017 record also means that IBM inventors have been granted more patents than any other company for 25 years in a row.
As a founder of the robotics startup I tried to use patent strategy to fend off the competition. On behalf of my startup I was awarded two patents for the robots we were building.
Those awarded patents are the following:
- 2014 https://www.google.com/patents/US20140163733 2014 SYSTEM FOR CONTROLLING A ROBOT’S COLLISION WITH AN OBSTACLE, A ROBOT EQUIPPED WITH SUCH A SYSTEM AND A METHOD OF CONTROLLING A ROBOT’S COLLISION WITH AN OBSTACLE
- 2012 https://www.google.com/patents/US20120260944 — VACUUM CLEANER AND VACUUM CLEANING SYSTEM AND METHODS OF USE IN A RAISED FLOOR ENVIRONMENT;
I learned later, that iRobot called the same strategy as the “Shield” to protect its inventions in home and military robotics. It paid off since they almost monopolized the robot vacuum market in USA. And almost everybody associate Roomba with a home robot vacuum.
Startups are often asked by VCs to describe their secret sauce and the way the startup is protecting it against the current competition or a competition to be. The patent is the great way for VC and investors to validate if there is nothing that stops your company from marketing the innovation.
The flip side of the patents is the expense. As a startup founder I experienced the downfall of the inventor of the fidget spinner who couldn’t afford the yearly fee of couple hundreds dollars back in mid 2000. And she hasn’t monetize on the hype last Summer. While it is not that expensive to file the patent in the first place, but later if you do not have the strategy to keep it alive and expand its reach to a global market you might not be able to sustain the patent over the period of 20 years.
Feel free to comment and reach out to me to continue the discussion. Follow me on my twitter blumareks
