After developing a news business model for painting lawns with vegetable oil for drought, and also introducing nutrients into the mix, I considered patenting the formula, but then convinced myself not to. Why? The costs of one, but also the time to market, patents take time, and the drought here in California could have mostly ended after a couple of years of El Niño with lots of rain. Still, there is another strong reason to reconsider your scoring.
You see, I don’t think a patent is a good idea, it’s like; “Why write it so someone can steal it in China?” Or someone can steal it and add or change an ingredient or two. A fellow business consultant was initially surprised by this decision of mine, but then she understood the relevance of my decision not to patent, she stated;
“You know, that’s a very good point that I’ve also considered in the past, to patent or not to patent, however, what if they reverse-engineer your product (for example, what happens if someone reverse-engineers it? Who got a sample product that you have just started bringing to market? If someone “stole” it (whether that person was in China or anywhere else in the world), what legal recourse would you have without a patent?
Yes, the correct thinking here indeed. Now, having a patent really only entitles you to pay lawyers a lot of money to “try” and does not guarantee that your rights as a patent holder are respected. A company with a lot of cash can fire you. Of course, if you run fast enough in the market and notice that no one else has a patent and you’ve already started, they have to catch you, not the other way around.
Fortunately, it is more difficult to reverse engineer something you spray on your lawn, because you need to analyze the liquid without debris. Therefore, someone has to physically steal an unused part, since it is a service business. So in this case, I think I feel safer without a patent, and I’m not afraid of the competition, I’m the competition, I always win. In fact, I once commented to a friend of mine. “Winning is the only thing I’m good at.” Still, why make it easy for a competitor to beat me using my brain?
She noticed; “I guess you wouldn’t have a lot of resources anyway if people in China stole it, but what about someone here in the US? Wouldn’t that mean you would have absolutely no property rights and therefore you would have no basis to sue someone? Who stole their product? “
Perhaps it would be wise for more entrepreneurs to understand this point? Consider all of this.