Getting a patent issued typically costs at least $10,000 and can easily cost upwards of $20,000. Most inventors who patent their inventions hope to get their money back after their invention begins selling in the marketplace. In reality, it rarely works like that. A very high percentage of patents never recoup their filing costs. Put more bluntly: They never generate any income, let alone what it cost to get the patent in the first place.
I’ve been helping inventors commercialize their product ideas and inventions for the past two decades. One of the biggest complaints I hear from inventors is that their patents are basically worthless. These inventors are frustrated and deflated. They’re out of the game, because they’ve spent so much time and money on a single invention — an invention that will never produce them any revenue. They won’t, or can’t, try to bring another, better idea to market because they’ve wasted their resources.
Dispatches From The Front 