Author: Aindrila Mitra

Here’s the simple truth most founders never hear: when your patent gets allowed, you’re not done. Not even close. The world keeps moving, new prior art keeps popping up, and the rules around what you must share with the USPTO don’t magically disappear just because your patent crossed the finish line. Many inventors think the…

Family mapping sounds like a quiet background task you can ignore until later. But it’s actually one of the most important steps when you’re dealing with patent protection. If you don’t map your patent family the right way, you can accidentally pay twice for the same coverage. It happens more than you’d think. A founder…

Most founders don’t think about data hygiene when they think about patents. They think about protecting an idea, filing on time, maybe avoiding a competitor copying what they built. But the truth is simple: if your patent data is messy, slow, or wrong, the whole foundation of your IP becomes shaky. A tiny mistake in…

Most founders think the hardest part of patents is filing. But the real challenge shows up later—quietly, slowly, and usually at the worst possible time. It’s the long-term costs. The maintenance fees. The renewals. The annuities. The stuff nobody warns you about until you’re already deep in the process and trying to stretch every dollar.…

Most founders don’t think about pruning their patents. They think the hard part is filing them. But the real challenge comes later—when your startup grows, your roadmap shifts, and you now have a pile of filings you’re paying for but not sure you still need. Patent pruning is the quiet skill that helps smart teams…

Most patent portfolios grow in messy ways. A startup files a few early ideas. Engineers build new features. A new hire suggests something bold. Investors push for “more IP.” Before long, you’re sitting on a pile of patents and applications that may—or may not—match where your company is heading. Why Every Startup Needs a Portfolio…

Most people who buy annuities think they’re choosing a calm, steady path for their money. Something safe. Something predictable. Something that won’t shift under their feet. But once you dig into how annuities actually work, you find a different story hiding behind the glossy charts and smooth sales talk. Currency shifts, foreign exchange rules, and…

When you run a startup, time is your fuel. You move fast, you build fast, and you expect everything around you to keep up. But there’s one part of the patent world that slows almost everyone down: annuity payments. They aren’t fun. They aren’t exciting. And if you miss even one, you can lose the…

Global annuities sound simple on the surface—you pay to keep your patent alive, and each country wants that payment on time. But the moment you start looking across borders, things get messy fast. Every country has its own timing rules, its own fee structure, its own grace periods, its own penalties, and its own little…

Letting a patent lapse sounds scary the first time you think about it. Most founders assume every patent must be protected forever or the whole company is at risk. But the truth is more practical. Smart teams let some patents go all the time. Not because they don’t care about their IP, but because they…