Getting IP protection is not only a good idea
It’s absolutely necessary if you have a winning commercially viable idea
Because if you have a great idea…
You will be copied…
There will be knockoffs and copycats…
Why go through the IP hassle at all?
Let me tell you a story…
Texas Inventor Strikes Gold
Meet Josh Malone…
Texas inventor, father of 8, family man…
He came up with a cool idea to have fun with his kids…
He invented Bunch of Balloons…
This invention allows kids to fill up 100 water balloons in 60 seconds…
AT ONE TIME…WOW!!
Way better than what we did with a water hose when I was a kid…
Joshua Protected His IP & Cashed In
Josh patented his invention…
He licensed his IP rights to a mega toy powerhouse, Zuru Toys…
And he got paid for it…
Wish it stopped here…but no
Willful Infringement? Copycats & Knock-Offs Abound
Then he got knocked off and copied…
As Seen For TV giant, Telebrands cloned his idea…
They came out with…
Balloon Bonanza…
Battle Balloons…
and Easy Einstein Balloons…
They sold in Wal Mart and everywhere…
They did it on purpose…
They willfully infringed and didn’t care about his patent…
In fact, worse than that…
They were hazardous knock offs of lessor quality…
On top of that…
They fought to invalidate his patents at the US Patent Office…
They filed invalidation proceedings against his patents…
in the Patent Trial & Appeal Board (PTAB)…
Malone Fights To Enforce and Defend His IP Rights
They won…sort of…
They got some of his patents invalidated…
They tried to bully him in court…
This is after a direct admission that they were copying his invention…
Josh Malone Wins The Good Fight
After four long years, this case has settled for $32M in Josh’s favor…
There have been other settlements as well…
But after all the monies and earnings he’s made…
Josh estimates he’s spent more than $17M on patent defense and enforcement of his IP rights…
Josh Malone is an amazing American Inventor Hero!
We are all much better off for his resilience…
I recommend you dig deeper into his story…
He has had to contend with and overcome a tremendous amount of adversity…
For this snippet, the moral of the story is…
Getting IP protection is only part of the battle…
You must have a comprehensive IP strategy…
You must have an IP Asset fortification strategy…
You must have an IP enforcement/defense strategy…
You must have an IP commercialization strategy…
And you must fight the good fight…
This is a harrowing story but imagine if Josh had…
No IP protection at all?
No IP strategy?
No resilient legal team?
No honest commercial partners?
How would this have ended?
Learn More About Josh’s story:
- https://www.dallasnews.com/news/2017/06/20/plano-inventor-s-200m-idea-sets-off-2-year-fight-with-as-seen-on-tv-giant/
- https://ipcloseup.com/2019/04/02/inventor-who-said-17m-is-the-real-cost-of-obtaining-his-patent-wins-24-5m-suit/
- https://www.wsj.com/articles/four-year-water-balloon-fight-ends-with-31-million-truce-11558388873
- https://peopleofplay.com/blog/josh-malone-my-bunch-o-balloons-invention-the-america-invents-act-a-decade-of-stolen-dreams
- https://casetext.com/case/kbidc-invs-v-zuru-toys-inc-1
- https://www.crowelltradesecretstrends.com/2021/04/bunch-o-balloons-trade-secret-dispute-results-in-bunch-o-appeals/
- https://www.inc.com/stephen-key/an-unexpected-benefit-of-licensing-a-product-idea.html
- https://enventyspartners.com/blog/celebrating-success-bunch-o-balloons/