Learn

Patent or depatent?

Patent when you want exclusive rights and can afford the time, novelty search, and prosecution path. Depatent when you only need to prevent others from owning the same idea.

Choose patent

Use the patent path for core inventions you may license, raise money around, or enforce.

Choose depatent

Use the depatent path for long-tail ideas, interoperability techniques, defensive OSS disclosures, and inventions you want kept in the commons.