Why you should file a patent before you go public

For many entrepreneurs and inventors, the instinct is to share new ideas quickly, gather feedback, and look for early customers. But that process could cost you. The moment an idea gets out, it becomes vulnerable. Filing a patent can help, but the window to act may be shorter than most realize.

Joining us on this episode of Business Trends Today is John Rizvi, Founder of The Patent Professor and The Law Firm Growth Professor. He’s also the author of Think and Grow Rich for Inventors and Escaping the Gray. Rizvi has spent decades helping inventors and entrepreneurs protect their ideas before someone else claims them. He says any entrepreneur or inventor with a great idea should file first, then market.

Launch fast, but protect first

The trait that most consistently separates successful founders from those who never get off the ground is action, says Rizvi. But it has to be the right action. Going public with an idea before it is protected, he says, is the wrong kind of action.

"It's whoever gets that application in earliest who owns the idea. So it's a completely different ball game."

“If you have something that you think is novel, that’s unique, that nobody else has done, the action I’m advocating you take is protect it,” Rizvi said.

For inventors, that means filing for a patent before disclosing the idea publicly. For brand builders, it means getting the name trademarked. You don’t have to have a finished product, he says. Under U.S. patent law, a patent-pending filing is enough to begin marketing, speaking to investors, and selling.

“Get the patent on file, and then you have the green light to go ahead and start marketing, sales, speaking to investors, and the whole bit,” Rizvi said.

The 2013 patent law change

Documentation alone won’t protect an idea anymore. The law changed in 2013, and Rizvi says many small business owners don’t realize that.

Before 2013, U.S. patent law operated on a first-to-invent system. If an inventor could prove with documentation that they conceived an idea first, that was enough to establish ownership, but that isn’t the case anymore.

Rizvi says filing early doesn’t require a finished product or a working prototype.

“You don’t even have to have a working model or a prototype in order to protect an idea.”

A conceptual description and basic drawings are enough to file a utility patent, which protects how an idea works rather than how it looks. Rizvi says that this allows inventors to lock in their filing date long before the product is fully developed.

The dangers of sharing too soon

Rizvi says inventors should keep a new idea close until it’s protected. Even a trusted inner circle, like friends and family, can become an unintentional source of leaks.

“Family members are sometimes the worst offenders when it comes to an idea leaking. And that’s not because of some evil intent. It’s actually the opposite. They’re just so proud,” he said.

Once an idea moves from one person to the next, it can reach someone who understands the first-to-file rules and decides to act on them.

Many entrepreneurs also spend months seeking feedback from advisors, potential partners, and industry contacts before filing. That window of exposure, Rizvi says, is an open invitation.

“If Amazon, Microsoft, Google, or some huge multinational corporation wants to rush forward, they can create the working model way faster than you can. But it doesn’t matter, because you’ve got the application in and your patent pending first,” Rizvi said.

Building your brand to last

Filing a patent protects an idea legally, but building a brand protects it commercially, Rizvi says.

Rizvi gave an example from the legal community. State bar restrictions historically forced law firms to market under a partner’s last name. The names didn’t stick. Firms like The Ticket Clinic and Morgan & Morgan broke from that pattern by building brands that communicate identity and create a lasting impression.

Rizvi built his brand, The Patent Professor, on that same principle. For smaller firms without massive advertising budgets, he says, brand clarity matters even more.

“The lower your advertising and marketing budget, the more important branding is.”

Rizvi says the value of a strong brand extends beyond recognition. It can also be protected indefinitely through trademarks. A utility patent expires after 20 years, but a trademark, renewed every 10 years, can last as long as the business itself. He points to Coca-Cola as an example. The brand is more than 100 years old, yet remains fully protected.

For small business owners, investing in a strong, protectable brand name from the start can outlast any product patent by decades.

What the Law Firm Growth Professor does differently

After building The Patent Professor into a nationally recognized brand, Rizvi turned his attention to a problem he noticed in the legal industry. The digital marketing agencies serving law firms didn’t always understand state bar restrictions on legal advertising. They also tended to focus on lead volume rather than quality.

Rizvi created The Law Firm Growth Professor to fix that problem. The agency tracks actual return on investment for every dollar spent on advertising. It focuses on reaching potential clients at the right point in their decision-making process, not just generating leads. For Rizvi, marketing that can’t be measured isn’t working hard enough.

“I wanted a digital marketing agency that’s run by the numbers, so we can calculate an actual rate of return for lawyers that are spending money on advertising,” Rizvi said.

How the Patent Professor can help

The Patent Professor has four former U.S. patent office examiners on staff, the same people who previously decided which ideas got granted and which got denied. Rizvi says that gives his clients a significant advantage when it comes to searching existing patents and assessing whether a filing makes sense before spending money on it.

The firm handles patents and trademarks, covering both the idea and the name attached to it. Rizvi says both matter, and both should be evaluated before an entrepreneur invests in marketing, manufacturing, or anything else.

For entrepreneurs ready to take the next step, Rizvi has plenty of resources available at thepatentprofessor.com.