Week 5 Reading Reflection

This week we had to read about "Assessment of Entrepreneurial Opportunities".
This reading was very informative and a little complex, since I have never learned how businesses work after one creates a new product/idea.

The first thing that stood out for me was the few steps the author outlines to protect a patent.
Securing a patent is really important, since competitors "track down" your steps and may steal your ideas/rights. Securing your own creation can solve a lot of problems.To make a patent valid, one has to consider a lot of stuff, such as the cost to develop and market the innovation. In addition, one has to analyze their competitors and their technological similarities to their idea. Another important step is to prepare a realistic budget that would cover unexpected situations, such as the persecution of patent violations. Furthermore, something that has to be considered is this question, "Will the patent be worth defending in three years, or will enforcement cost more than the damages collected?" All these are essential for protecting a patent. The basic tip is to plan ahead and ensure your idea is going to last and will be worth protecting for the upcoming years. 

The reality is that the cost of the patent process in combination to the amount of time and resources needed for that process is so large that many inventors don't think it is worth it. So they invest more into licensing a patent, instead of marketing it. For the marketing process, they hire people that have the necessary knowledge in doing it, so that they save time and money at the same time. In fact, in any business, an inventor has to employ people capable of working in different sectors. This will definitely relieve the inventor by many roles, reducing their responsibilities and stress to an extent, as well as leading them to more successful outcomes. If the inventors were doing the same tasks as marketing agents or finance managers, they wouldn't know better than the actual people that have experience on working in these sectors. As a result, the patent would be marketed poorly. 

Nevertheless, I would still think that patent is worth protecting if it is going to affect a big percentage of the population positively, such as medicine.