Protecting Your Highest Priority Inventions – Steve Sponseller

This is another solo episode of the Tech Leader Talk podcast.

Today’s episode continues the discussion of the 7-Step system I created that’s helped many tech companies build robust patent strategies. I will be discussing the fifth step in that system, which helps you protect your highest priority inventions to build a valuable patent portfolio.

In previous episodes of the podcast, I’ve discussed the first four steps. Today, I’m discussing step 5 which is: Protecting your highest priority inventions that will add valuable assets to your patent portfolio. This step follows from the previous discussion of step 4 which talks about defining invention evaluation criteria that’s used to evaluate your team’s inventions. If you want to listen to the step 4 episode, it was published on: May 28, 2026. Link to that episode: https://www.podpage.com/tech-leader-talk-1/creating-invention-evaluation-criteria-for-a-robust-patent-strategy-steve-sponseller/

You want to patent the most valuable inventions that your team creates, so you continually build a strong patent portfolio filled with high-value patent assets.

Unfortunately, many patents have minimal value for a variety of reasons, such as being easy for a competitor to design around. Applying your company’s evaluation criteria to each invention allows you to prioritize those inventions and select the highest value inventions for patent protection.

When prioritizing your inventions, it’s important to protect your core technology that provides a competitive advantage. You should also prioritize must-have features that make your product stand out in the marketplace. If you patent a must-have feature, you may have the ability to exclude competitors from offering that feature. Other high-priority inventions are those that are likely to have high value in the future based on today’s technology trends.

Be sure to apply your evaluation criteria to each invention then select the highest priority inventions to file patent applications that will create patent assets for your patent portfolio. Make this process of invention evaluation and patent protection part of your regular business activities.

I will be talking about the remaining 2 steps to building your robust patent strategy in future episodes.

Questions?

If you have any questions about building a robust patent strategy for your company, contact me to schedule a complimentary call.

Contact me via email: Steve@SteveSponseller.com

Thanks for listening!

Be sure to get your free copy of my latest book, Cracking the Patent Code, and discover my proven system for identifying and protecting your most valuable inventions. Get the book at https://stevesponseller.com/book.