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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 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 before making a bad investment  [...]

By Ben Langlotz | July 1, 2022 | Intellectual Property Advice, Patent | 0 Comments Read More »

GOING ABROAD WITH YOUR PATENTS

When Foreign Patent Protection Makes Sense for Firearms Inventions (The answer is “Probably not, unless…”) 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  [...]

By Ben Langlotz | June 1, 2022 | Intellectual Property Advice, Patent | 0 Comments Read More »

IT’S TIME TO TWEET

My 10-Step “Twitter Bootcamp” Gets You Ready for Free Speech Under Elon Musk’s Ownership Now that Twitter is owned by someone who seems to like both freedom and capitalism, it’s time for everyone reading these words to reconsider Twitter. Like you, I skipped all the MySpace, TikTok, SnapChat fads, and for years skipped Twitter as just another apparent waste of time with a silly name that I couldn’t take seriously.  (I’m still not an Instagram user, nor Pinterest, and never got any benefit out of LinkedIn from the very early years).  But let’s get one  [...]

By Ben Langlotz | May 6, 2022 | Opinion Pieces | 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 | April 14, 2022 | Firearms, Intellectual Property Advice, 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 | March 15, 2022 | Firearms Industry Advice, Intellectual Property Advice, Patent, Trademark | 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  [...]

By Ben Langlotz | February 3, 2022 | Firearms | 0 Comments Read More »