Patent, Publish or Keep Quiet?
Contents
Knowing When To Register Your Rights and When Not To
Have you created a new innovation or are you supporting someone who is? Whatever industry you’re in, from AI and biotech, manufacturing, electronics or chemicals, you’ve probably already faced the challenge: should you patent the idea, publish it to get the momentum going, or keep it quiet for now? It’s a question we hear constantly from founders, and it’s one that can genuinely shape the future of your business.
Intellectual property can sometimes be treated as a siloed activity, tick and move on. However, it affects your company valuation, your ability to raise investment, and your competitive position. And, as many founders discover the hard way, timing is everything. Publishing too early can permanently remove your ability to patent. Keeping things too quiet can slow momentum, and filing too late can leave you exposed. For first time founders especially, it’s hard to know when to judge the correct timing to support your company’s growth.
How to choose the right approach?
Patents are brilliant when you’ve created something truly technical and novel, but they do require full disclosure, which creates a vulnerability in itself. Publication is great for visibility and credibility, but once it’s public, it’s public. Trade secrets can be powerful for algorithms, manufacturing know how and internal processes, but only if you actively and continuously protect them.
The biggest mistake we see? Publishing before filing. And publication doesn’t just mean journals. It includes LinkedIn posts, conference slides, website updates and even conversations without an NDA on WhatsApp. It’s surprisingly easy to accidentally disclose something with significant knock on effects.
Investors look closely at this now as a way to protect their own portfolio interests. They want to see clear ownership, no early disclosure mistakes, and a protection plan that scales with the business. It’s not about having lots of patents to prove you are innovative, they are looking for business acumen that is proven by having the right strategy.
You candownload the full white paper, which goes into more detail on this topic below.
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