The Founders Playbook

A complete series for technical founders, from deciding what to protect to getting the most from an issued patent, written by a registered patent agent and electrical engineer. Read it in order or jump to the stage you’re in.

Not sure where to start? Book a free 15-minute fit call.

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1. Decide what to protect

Patent, trade secret, or neither? Where the open lanes are, and whether your engineering is patentable at all.

• Patent or Trade Secret? Allocating Protection by Innovation Type

• Mapping the 'White Space': How to Find the Open Lane in a Crowded Tech Stack

• The Complexity Trap: Why Breakthrough Engineering Often Fails the Patentability Test

• Freedom to Operate — The Analysis Nobody Wants to Pay For (Until It's Too Late)

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2. Capture the invention and secure priority

Ownership of the invention and a priority date that holds up.

• The 'Brain Drain' Protocol: How to Extract IP Assets Before Your Engineers Quit

• Securing Your Priority Date Without Burning Your Runway

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3. Draft an asset, not a paperweight

Claims, specification, and drawings that cover what competitors will actually build.

• The Trojan Horse: Planting Future Monopolies Inside Today’s Application

• The First Thing They Look At: Why Your Patent Drawings Are Your Real Pitch Deck

• The Difference Between an Asset and a Paperweight: Claim Drafting for Emerging Tech

• The Claims Are The Asset. The Rest is Just Context. A Founder's Guide to Patent Anatomy.

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4. File

Your first non-provisional and where to file around the world.

• Filing Your First Non-Provisional: From Trade Secret to Public Record

• Global Patent Strategy: The 30-Month Reservation System and Where to File

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5. Prosecute: from first office action to allowance

Reading rejections, examiner interviews, amendments, and options after a final rejection.

• Your First Office Action Is an Opening Offer, Not a Verdict

• The 30-Minute Conversation: Examiner Interviews

• Tactical Amendments: Build a More Defensible Asset

• Section 102 and 103 Response Strategies for AI and Robotics Founders

• How to Win the Section 101 Battle for Your AI Patent

• Beyond the RCE Treadmill: Options After a Final Office Action

• Third Rejection: What a Final Office Action Really Means

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6. After grant

Allowance, maintenance, post-grant review, scaling the portfolio, and what it is worth.

• After the Notice of Allowance: What Sophisticated Patent Owners Do Next

• Maintenance Fees: Why an Issued Patent Is a Subscription

• The Asterisk Is Fading: What Narrower PTAB Review Means for Your Issued Patent

• Scale Your Patent Portfolio With Your Company: An Audit-First Framework

• What Is My Patent Worth? Three Valuation Frameworks