The host had just set patents up as the standard defence against copycats and big-brand knockoffs, and asked him for advice for entrepreneurs. Jordan answers against the premise. In the turns that follow he describes a decade of putting patent-pending on every other word of his website and spending the money on lawyers and lawsuits, and says the same time and money in the product and the customer experience would have taken him further.
now. Stop right now. You need me very badly. I know how to sue people.
So the number one reason you get a patent in the first place is to protect yourself against copycats and big companies, like he mentioned, Calvin Klein and some really big ones that can come in and do that. Any thoughts right here for entrepreneurs?
Hans, I made a huge mistake pursuing the patent strategy from the beginning of this business.
Okay, he made a huge mistake. Listen up because most people don't say that. Go ahead.
Yeah, most entrepreneurs feel that they need to protect their technology and their idea. And God forbid someone's going to compete with you and it was your idea and they stole your idea. So for the first 10 years of my business, maybe more, every second word on my website was patented or patent pending. And if you, you know, the fine print, anyone who dares to knock me off, I'm going to sue you. And I spent time and money and aggravation with lawyers, suing people, if I had invested that time and money in the product and in the customer service experience instead, I was already doing it, but instead, I would have been much further along. And I would encourage every single entrepreneur out there to do as little as necessary to have the window dressing of a patent pending a document, but it's worth nothing. As I ultimately discovered, even if you do get it, you're not willing to spend millions of dollars and tons of time defending it and protecting it. And as a result, I think you would do much better, you know, just doing the best you can and welcome the competition and just do it better than them. It's a huge thing. I want all your entrepreneurs who are listening to remember this because this is not what they think. This is not a natural thought.
And that's not what IP attorneys tell you.