When not to file a patent

Four honest reasons to skip a filing

It is undetectable. A process that leaves no trace in the output cannot be policed. Filing publishes it and gives you nothing you could enforce.

You would never enforce it. Enforcement is a civil action you fund and prove. A right you would never assert is an annual cost.

It is trivially avoidable. If the invention is one design choice among several equally good ones, a patent on your choice protects very little.

Publication helps them more. In fast-moving fields, a specification can hand a competitor eighteen months of research direction.

What to do instead

Trade secrecy with real controls, for the undetectable process. Defensive publication, if the only goal is to stop someone else patenting it. Or nothing at all, and spend the money on shipping.

The decision deserves one written sentence: what would a competitor have to do differently if this were granted? If the answer is nothing much, that is your answer.

What to actually do

• Ask what a competitor would have to change if this were granted.
• Do not file inventions you could never detect being used.
• Consider defensive publication where the only aim is to block others.
• Record the decision and the reason, so it can be revisited.