SJ
LinkedIn ↗ X (Twitter) ↗ Website ↗

Scott Jordan

Things Scott Says on Podcasts

He founded SCOTTeVEST in 2000 after practicing law, building a line of multi-pocket travel clothing designed to carry phones, cables, and other gear. He later patented the underlying system for running wiring through garment pockets, calling it Technology Enabled Clothing, and has defended that patent through several court challenges. His public reputation splits along that line: to customers he is the inventor of practical tech-carrying apparel, and to some critics he became known for aggressive patent licensing and litigation. He pitched the licensing side of his business, not the retail brand, on Shark Tank in 2012, where Mark Cuban called him a patent troll on air. He still runs SCOTTeVEST out of Ketchum, Idaho, and has written about the company and the patent fights in his book Pocket Man.

Where to Find Them

Scott Jordan has been a guest on Exit Rich and Social Geek .

Recently: “Shark Tank's Biggest Mess: "It's not rocket science it's pocket science!" With SCOTTeVEST” on Exit Rich (September 2026); “A CEO Talks About Creating An Award Winning Social Brand” on Social Geek (February 2013).

What They Said

“I made a huge mistake pursuing the patent strategy from the beginning of this business.” — Scott Jordan, Exit Rich

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.

Exit Rich · 2026-09-11 Permalink → Listen →
Exit Rich Around 17:48 into the episode
Speaker 4

now. Stop right now. You need me very badly. I know how to sue people.

Michelle Seiler Tucker

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?

Scott Jordan

Hans, I made a huge mistake pursuing the patent strategy from the beginning of this business.

Michelle Seiler Tucker

Okay, he made a huge mistake. Listen up because most people don't say that. Go ahead.

Scott Jordan

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.

Michelle Seiler Tucker

And that's not what IP attorneys tell you.

Speaker names from our own diarization · position estimated from where the line sits in the episode