The whole point of a patent is to formally register something novel that you’ve invented, either so that no one can copy it without getting into trouble, or so you can sell licenses to people who want to use your idea. The value of your business may increase if you hold patents, and investors certainly seem to like them.
Patent law is complicated but boils down to this – if you generate an essential-patent then it becomes a standard, and if anyone wants to use it they would normally have to pay you a negotiated licence fee. The image compression format JPEG is an example. There are many large companies that pay the patent holder a fee to use the JPEG standard.
Any other patent is non-essential – so for example, if you patented a new kind of potato peeler, you haven’t cornered the market on potato peeling, just on your particular novel method of peeling potatoes. Someone who came up with another peeling method wouldn’t need a licence from you even if their design was very similar to yours. They would argue it’s completely different, so they didn’t need to pay.
Most patents are non-essential, so someone else can copy yours with only a small difference. And then the value of your newly minted patent is reduced or eliminated.
So you have a conflict; investors like patents (although when you dig into why they are often not really sure) but they are costly, take time and may not help your business other than in getting that investment.
It can take many years from filing a patent application (which is the start of the process) to being granted a patent and it can be prohibitively expensive, particularly if you want worldwide protection. Often you hear entrepreneurs say they have a patent, when all they have is a piece of paper saying they’ve applied for one, which is interesting but worthless. The value comes when the patent is granted.
Then someone comes along who doesn’t care, blatantly copies your idea and your redress is that you can sue them for patent infringement. That is also very expensive, slow, and a considerable distraction from your day-to-day business.
My view is that unless you are creating a new standard, the value of a patent is more in the perception you create towards investors as an innovative company than in any inherent value the patent might have.
So think carefully about what your investors want from you before you invest time and money in patent filing.
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