Inventors often have a couple of common concerns, some have statistical significance and some do not.

This idea is so great that as soon as it leaves my lips everyone is going to start making copies of it.

There is a little more to supply chain management than just telling someone to make a product, asking someone else to buy it, and having the two magically connect.  The first thing is that you need to determine if the device can be made and a cost to make the device at quantity.  Next, you need to determine a market price for the device, striving to be at least 600% of the variable production cost.  If the variable cost to market price ratio is 1:18 or more, you are in the territory where second movers might be able to make profitable copies.  This has nothing to do with how good the idea is and everything to do with costs and prices.

If I get a patent then that prevents anyone from taking my idea.

Patents are defined by their claims not the "idea" that is disclosed in the application.  A good way to think of this is that the closest thing to what the inventor is doing that was already in existence at that time a patent application is filed has some difference to what is currently being patented.  Those structural differences are what is eligible to patent, not the idea as a whole.

Common patent attorney concerns

During initial consultations, inventors frequently tell me, "I never thought of that." Having gone through this process many times, I have seen that some concerns come up a lot more often than inventors think they will.

There is no business strategy at all.

When an inventor comes into my office with goals, I am usually able to assess them.  Getting a patent is not a goal.  It can be a milestone in accomplishing a goal.  For instance, selling products exclusively is a goal.  If there isn't a strategy and a revenue model I can make some suggestions.

There are public domain substitute goods.

Where someone can either by the inventor's invention of a competing good in the public domain there are public domain substitute goods.  The inventor needs to have an improvement that justifies a customer spending a ton more money than something already on the shelf.  80% of the time, the justification isn't there.

It is difficult for an inventor to navigate all of the business and patent concerns that come with the incredible cost risk of filing patent application.  To get assistance please call the Law Office of Michael O'Brien at 916-760-8265 or email me at mobrien@lawyer.com