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WHY YOU PROBABLY DON’T NEED A PATENT SEARCH

And the Key Signs That Indicate When You Do I love to give advice, especially when I know my prediction will never be wrong.  My favorite advice is to predict “a 50-50 chance of success,” because no matter the outcome I’m never wrong. My other favorite advice is recommending a patentability search.  Because no matter the results, my client is happy.  If we get “good” news, and nothing is found that blocks patentability, my client is happy.  If we get “bad” news, my client is grateful they have the disappointing information to help avoid making a bad  [...]

By Ben Langlotz | January 19, 2026 | Business, Firearms Industry Advice, Intellectual Property Advice, Opinion Pieces, Patent | 0 Comments Read More »

WHEN FOREIGN PATENTS MAKE SENSE FOR FIREARMS INVENTIONS

(Short Answer: “Rarely.” Except…) As an inventor myself, I know the enthusiastic feeling that your invention is going to be an incredible success, and wouldn’t it be a tragedy if you had only the US market protected and the rest of the world was knocking off your invention willy-nilly without paying you a penny.  Unthinkable, right? But good business decisions are about costs and benefits, and in most cases there’s a big difference between the US patent decision and the International “upgrade” decision.  Compared to the still-significant investment to  [...]

By Ben Langlotz | December 17, 2025 | Business, Firearms Industry Advice, Intellectual Property Advice, Patent | 0 Comments Read More »

LET’S GO BRANDIN’!

How to Pick Trademarks That Help You Sell, and Won't Get You Sued One of the most fun parts of my law practice is helping clients pick trademarks.  I don’t charge extra if I come up with an idea you love enough to use on a new product, or for your new company.  I always promise that some day when my portfolio of successful brand picks is impressive enough, I’ll put a fat price-tag on the service (pay only if you actually adopt one of my suggestions).  But then the pressure would be on, and the fun might end. I’ve written about branding before*, and urged  [...]

By Ben Langlotz | November 20, 2025 | Business, Firearms Industry Advice, Intellectual Property Advice, Opinion Pieces, Trademark | 0 Comments Read More »

HOW TO GET TOP DOLLAR FOR YOUR COMPANY IN FIVE YEARS

Sometimes, I know when clients have been reading this newsletter.  Sometimes, I’m blown away to see something I wrote about years ago drive a client’s strategy. I just took a call from a client who told me they were getting ready to sell their company, and could we see about resurrecting some old trademark registrations they had earlier decided to let drop to save the renewal cost.  You see, they knew that a fatter portfolio of intellectual property would strengthen their case for a high valuation of their company beyond annual profits and hard assets.  Here’s  [...]

By Ben Langlotz | October 18, 2025 | Firearms | 0 Comments Read More »

THE ROYALTY DREAM (How to License Your Inventions)

Reality Check: The Bubble I’ve Busted a Thousand Times The classic newbie inventor has a good idea, falls in love with it, and wants to sell it to a big company.  That NEVER happens, almost.  Here’s what I counsel clients a dozen times a year: your odds of success increase vastly the farther along you are with your invention, your patent, your product, and your profits.  I’ll probably expand this to a full newsletter article, but for now, here is the hierarchy that determines how likely it is you can sell your rights (or license them), starting at the bottom  [...]

By Ben Langlotz | September 17, 2025 | Business, How To, Intellectual Property Advice, Patent | 0 Comments Read More »

REMEMBERING THE REMINGTON ROYALTY LESSON

Too Big to Fail? Remington’s Bizarre “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” Campaign It was fourteen years ago that I wrote about one of our industry friends playing an interesting voicemail at the SHOT Show. Consider all that has changed since then. These friends are innovators, with some valuable patents in their portfolio. Because Remington liked one of their inventions, they worked out a licensing deal. Remington paid royalties, and got to use the invention. Often, it’s the big guys paying the innovative upstarts. Pretty cool. Hoping for Handouts from the  [...]

By Ben Langlotz | August 18, 2025 | Business, Firearms Industry Advice, Intellectual Property Advice, Opinion Pieces | 0 Comments Read More »