All of the below have widely-varying $billing $rates. These services are chosen and offered partly because they are the types of tasks that many inventors dislike and would prefer to delegate. But often, rather than delegate, they just blow them off entirely.
Even worse, some inventors often hope that these tasks will not need to be performed at all, and so neglect them. This is a recipe for losing every cent that was put in (we see this often). The below tasks need to be done! Don't think you can skate by without doing this. And have the self-awareness to know when you need to Delegate!
Inability to Delegate is a key ingredient in business-failure.
We sometimes get chosen to perform these services because our law firm often has a very firm clear idea of the scope and content of the invention, usually second only to the inventor herself.
PATENTS2REVENUE™
As an attorney but also a product engineer, I run a couple of different businesses. The law firm BlueCollarIP™ provides legal services only, and has its own EIN with the IRS. However, due to demand from my customers, inventors, clients, we also do some engineering, brand-strategy, 3D printing and fabrication, and e-commerce, setting up initial websites, setting up initial YouTube channels. This is a non-law business I own, branded as PATENTS2REVENUE™, which has a different EIN with the IRS.
What good are patents on an invention that is not selling?
This non-law business may include setting up some resources ourselves, e.g. a crude, rudimentary website or YouTube channel, and then quickly giving these over to the client\inventor, with all raw materials, video files, and passwords, etc. That inventor then chooses their own full-time service provider, using my materials as a base to work from. This may be a website, a YouTube channel, or a GIF file quickly showing the key salient features of an invention in a visual way. Also setting up Keywords and mini-Ads to be used in Pay Per Click ad campaigns within e.g. Ads.Google.Com, a complicated interface but an excellent way to assess one’s marketplace at low cost. Excellent area for learning brand-psychology.
Pricing and strategy vary widely, this is a difficult area to make predictions. Thus, please hit our Contact Us for pricing on our PATENTS2REVENUE™, which are extensive. Be prepared to be disappointed, these services are not easy, not cheap, and not fast. Most inventors are very sanguine about this unpleasant aspect of inventing, the marketing, the persuading relectant customers, the unpleasantness, and the Rejection
Most inventors are good at certain areas, but do not want to learn all these other areas, finding them difficult and time-consuming.
Also, a key deadly area for inventors: selecting the wrong service provider, and not knowing when/how to “fire” that service provider. Having no point of reference, even some astute inventors do not know how to tell when a biz-relationship may have deteriorated to the point it is non-recoverable. They also hire unwisely in the first place. This is a common syndrome. we try to help with this, not as a lawyer but more as strategic-advisors or just trusted persons.
As stated, it sometimes makes inventors uncomfortable, suspicious, and/or confused, that a patent attorney gets involved in these other areas. Most lawyers do not want to touch these other areas. In my case, I truly love these areas, and find this super-interesting. Even the tedious aspects, the tax/IRS aspects, Schedule C aspects, documentation of expenses and cash-flows, etc. Adwords and keywords.
HERE IS WHY WE OFFER PATENTS2REVENUE™: I am tired of seeing my inventors fail! I am sick of seeing this! What good are patents on an invention that is not selling?
My non-law side also get involved in finding investors, finding government grants, finding money, and private equity in some cases. Typically an inventor must be advanced to be eligible for this, including having e.g. 2 years EBITDA, at least 2 years of tax returns, etc. I would like to do a lot more of this, but many of my inventors never make it this far. My non-law side gets involved in Branding services, e.g. selecting an appropriate, protectable, distinctive brand. This can be a big factor in convincing an investor to “buy-in”, having a brand that is customer-tested and has shown some strength, resonance with customers, and protectability.
Amazon profiles and YouTube channels are important areas of commerce. They are also difficult, complex, and have their own set of rules which are strange. Learning this is like going back to college. Many inventors find these aspects tedious, and neglect them to their own detriment. Further, a mistake in these areas can be deadly, and un-erasable.
Contact Us for pricing on our PATENTS2REVENUE™ suite of services.
In the event that the invention just conk out, just clearly is not going to produce revenue, another mechanism our PATENTS2REVENUE™ services may involve just $selling the patents, or trademarks, or other IP. Usually the $sale $price is not high, but its better than nothing. Its also a good business lesson, a lot of solid forensic lessons can be learned from inventors that end up selling their patents.
While this is not our favorite way to help our clients, it is truly an authentic example of our
PATENTS2REVENUE™ brand.
Also, our experience in this area should give us some leverage and street-cred when we work with a new inventor. We have seen so many instances where a production run of an invention ends up selling poorly, in a warehouse, where eventually the entire production run must be scrapped for its raw-material value (if any). This happens often, its disappointing, the inventory must be scrapped but the debt incurred to finance the inventor remains.
Moving back to law-related services, some inventors need contracts which make provision for Escrow (where payment is held in a special account, but is not released until certain agreed-upon milestones are reached), LLC OP Agreements, partnerships, and various ways of documenting when money flows between friends. Specifically, how to protect both relationships (the money-relationship and also the friendship).
attending industry-specific trade shows on behalf of clients
finding new business channels and potential new customers for clients
assisting in the commercialization of inventions
developing relationships with outside capital and investors
shoring up and clarifying relationships between inventors and existing investors
sometimes advising clients "its time to give up, cease spending money, stop the bleeding"
finding, negotiating with, and vetting service providers for clients and inventors
completing grant applications and applications for participating in entrepreneurship competitions and invention competitions
completing and filing quickie-rush provisional patent applications to provide at least some protection prior to the public disclosure that arises with invention competitions
providing copyright filing and assistance, strategic counsel, including explain to people how to file their own copyright application at copyright.gov
assisting with accounting and tax strategies for inventors and small businesses, including how to properly document expenses and when and where they can be deducted and when not
extensive experience with properly developing, seeding, and pre-launch canvassing of Crowdfunding campaigns
assistance with Google Adwords, including using Google Adwords as a way of measuring effectiveness of a particular brand and brand-identity
helping authors get their books finished and published
extensive Rolodex of trustworthy reliable service providers that can work with inventors and small businesses
setting up YouTube channel for clients
providing assistance with political campaigns, including website and donation management
VENTURE CAPITAL, GRANT-MONEY, PITCHING FOR DOLLARS
drafting position papers showing the advantages of products,
applications for government grants, Shark Tank, Y-combinator, “Bricks” of West Palm Beach FL, or invention competitions
BRAND-DISCOVERY USING GOOGLE AD-WORDS
Setting up a simple landing page (not website) and enabling Google Adwords to funnel carefully curated and screened interested parties to that landing page
Doing federal trademark searches to determine which of these Keywords might be available for a federal trademark registration;
Assembling a list of possible brands, ranking them by a variety of factors at least two of which are whether 1) federal trademark Registration is available, and 2) level of competition (whether these words and brand-identities are already subject to a high degree of purchase within Google Adwords
LLC filing and Operating Agreements;Operating Agreements should not ever again be thought of as "set it and forget it" documents, but instead should be thought of as living documents that need to be periodically updated as business conditions change, please see our YouTube playList on the subject of LLCs, and see also the separate section of this website dedicated to LLCs;We include this section in both the "legal services" and also our "non-Legal services" sections because many aspects of an Operating Agreement do not require an attorney, indeed many of the best authors of Op Agreement documents are not attorneys, and also, most Operating Agreements are not filed anywhere, and are not ever interpreted in any Court, they are just private Agreements between two or more parties;
Tax consequences and Schedule C issues for both inventors and LLCs;Schedule C is a neglected area of individual and corporate governance, because its so dul and people don't understand it. We include this section in both the "legal services" and also our "non-Legal services" sections because many aspects of an Schedule C do not require an attorney or CPA, indeed many Schedule C documents and assertions are filed by individuals themselves, without any outside professional at all. Please our YouTube videos and playLists on Schedule C issues. A first playList of ours discusses Schedule C for inventors, and a second playList of ours discusses an episode of CNBC's show "the Profit" starring Marcus Lemonis in which a company clearly mis-handles their Schedule C representations;
