Q: How do you find the value of a patent?

A: The COST of getting a single US patent is several tens of thousands of US dollars. It could be as little as $10K, or as much as $50K+. It depends on many factors.

Now, the VALUE of a patent, once the US Patent Office grants it, is determined the same as the value of anything else. The value of a patent depends on the market; the value of a patent is somewhere between whatever the owner of the patent is willing to sell it for and whatever the purchaser is willing to buy it for. It may be nothing, or it may be a hundred thousand dollars, or ten million dollars, or a billion dollars. It just depends.

How do you, as a patent holder, or a potential patent buyer, know how much a particular patent is worth? Well, just like there are real estate appraisers, there are companies that specialize in evaluating patents.

A: Another way of approaching this is to view your patent as a fence around an orchard. It keeps people from having the benefit of the orchard without your permission.

That part is easy. Now the question is how useful is access it your orchard. That is a function of the market size that you serve. A specialized tool used by 100 people will have less value than something that a million businesses would want. Something that saves a few pennies off the cost of production of a widget will be worth less than something that makes it even possible to make a particular novel device.

Finally, if you have found and locked up one of seven ways to do something, you will have less leverage than if you have found and locked up the only possible way to do something.

I hope this helps provide some context. There are firms that specialize in doing this sort of calculation and they may be able to provide a better estimate for you.

Kevin E Flynn