Raising money for an invention has an order to it, and the order matters more than the route.
File before any public route. Crowdfunding, pitch events, press coverage and trade shows are all public disclosure, and disclosure before filing forfeits patent rights in most countries.
Then raise against something defined. Investors fund assets and teams, not concepts.
And know what each route costs you — not in money, but in control, ownership or optionality.
Fund the search first — it is free
| Step | Cost |
|---|---|
| Prior art search | $0 |
| Reading close references | $0 |
| Deciding which right applies | $0 |
The routes
| Route | Funds | Costs you |
|---|---|---|
| Grants | Development | Conditions, sometimes IP terms |
| Licensing | Development by a licensee | Control |
| Crowdfunding | Production | Public disclosure |
| Angel or venture | Company building | Equity, and diligence |
| Revenue | Everything, slowly | Time |
| Self-funded | — | Your capital |
Most inventors use more than one, and the sequence determines which stay available.
The disclosure trap
| Route | Public disclosure? |
|---|---|
| Crowdfunding campaign page | Yes |
| Pitch competition, public | Yes |
| Press coverage describing it | Yes |
| Trade show demonstration | Yes |
| Grant application | Usually confidential — check |
| Investor pitch under NDA | Generally not |
| Offer for sale, even one unit | Yes |
File first. A provisional costs about $60 in micro entity USPTO fees plus drafting, and it preserves the position for twelve months.
The US one-year grace period does not travel. Relying on it preserves US rights and forfeits nearly everywhere else. See patent priority date.
Grants
| Feature | Detail |
|---|---|
| Funds | Research and development stage |
| Sources | Government innovation programmes, universities, regional schemes |
| Dilution | None |
| IP terms | Read them — conditions can attach |
| Effort | Application writing is substantial |
| Timeline | Slow |
Read the IP conditions before accepting. Some programmes attach rights, march-in provisions or reporting obligations, and those follow the invention.
No dilution is the attraction, and grant funding is frequently the only non-dilutive money available at research stage.
Licensing to fund development
| You get | You give | |
|---|---|---|
| Upfront payment | Certain money | — |
| Milestones | Staged funding | — |
| Running royalty | Ongoing income | — |
| Exclusive licence | Higher rate | Control of the field |
| Development funded | Someone else takes the risk | The commercial upside |
An exclusive licence normally excludes you from practising your own invention unless you expressly reserve rights. That surprises inventors regularly.
Minimum annual royalties protect you against a licensee taking the rights and shelving the technology. Without them, an exclusive licensee can block the market at no cost. See types of IP licences.
Crowdfunding
| Point | Detail |
|---|---|
| The campaign page is public disclosure | File first |
| Funds | Production and tooling |
| Also provides | Demand evidence |
| Risk | Delivery obligations |
| Copying | Your design is now public |
The demand evidence is genuinely valuable for later fundraising or licensing — it answers the question every investor asks.
But the page publishes your invention. File before launching, not after the campaign succeeds.
Investors
| They ask | You need |
|---|---|
| Who owns the IP? | Clean recorded chain of title |
| Did contractors assign their work? | Written, present-tense assignments |
| Did departed founders assign? | Same |
| Do you have freedom to operate? | A separate analysis |
| Is anything already disclosed? | Documented dates |
| What is filed, and where? | Filing record |
"We have a patent" is not an answer to the freedom-to-operate question. A patent is a right to exclude others, not permission to practise. See fto meaning.
Contractor assignments are the most common defect found. Paying for work does not buy the IP in it, and "agrees to assign" creates only a promise. See ip due diligence.
What diligence exposes
| Defect | Fixable before? | Fixable during? |
|---|---|---|
| Contractor work never assigned | Yes | Sometimes |
| Departed founder never signed | Yes | Frequently not |
| Unrecorded assignment | Yes | Yes, with the parties |
| Prior public disclosure | No — but documentable | No |
| Dissolved entity in the chain | Sometimes | Frequently not |
All of these are cheaper to fix beforehand, and three of them can kill a round outright.
Run your own diligence before anyone else does. The checks are free and take hours.
Corporate submission portals
| Term | Effect |
|---|---|
| Waiver of confidentiality | Common requirement |
| No obligation to compensate | Frequently stated |
| No obligation to keep it secret | Same |
| Their existing work | May already cover it |
Read the terms before uploading anything. These provisions are reasonable from the company's side — accepting secret ideas creates liability they cannot manage — and consequential from yours.
File before submitting, or accept that the disclosure may be public.
Raise to the next decision point
| Stage | Approximate need |
|---|---|
| Free prior art search | $0 |
| Provisional filed | ~$60 + drafting |
| Rough prototype | Varies widely |
| Demand tested | Small |
| Non-provisional | ~$400 + $5,000–$15,000 |
| Tooling and inventory | Much larger |
Raise for the next milestone, not the whole journey. The amount needed to file a provisional and test demand is a fraction of what tooling requires, and the answer to "is this worth it" arrives long before the large number does.
Order of operations
| Step | Before |
|---|---|
| Free prior art search | Anything |
| File a provisional | Any public route |
| Test demand | Large spending |
| Raise | The next milestone |
| Public launch | After filing |
The sequence is what preserves options. Reversing any two steps forecloses something.
Not a funding route
| Invention promotion firms | Paid by you, not by a buyer |
| Paid evaluations | Positive evaluations are the product |
| Submission packages | Sending material to a list is cheap |
| §297 disclosure required | How many customers made a net profit |
Ask for the net-profit figure in writing before paying anything, and read that number rather than the customer count. See invention companies.
What the odds look like
| Ipiry Patent Survival Curve v1.0 | Rate |
|---|---|
| Survive the 3.5-year fee (2022 cohort) | 85.8% |
| Survive the 7.5-year fee (2018 cohort) | 64.6% |
| Reach full term (2014 cohort) | 41.4% |
| Abandoned before full term | 58.6% |
Computed from 27,273,654 USPTO maintenance fee records covering 8,262,336 US utility patents — see the patent survival curve.
Nearly three in five granted patents are released early, which is the honest context for any funding decision. Raising against an invention is raising against a probability, and the free prior art search is the cheapest way to improve it.
If nothing can be raised
| Alternative | Detail |
|---|---|
| Defensive publication | Cheap; stops others patenting it |
| Trade secret | No expiry while secret; no funding needed |
| Licence rather than build | Someone else funds it |
| Sell the application | An asset, not an idea |
| Not pursuing it | A legitimate outcome |
Not every invention needs a funded path. Some are worth publishing so nobody else can patent them, and some are worth keeping quiet.
How to raise money for an invention: the checklist
- File before any public route. Crowdfunding and pitch events are disclosure.
- A provisional is the cheapest first position — about $60 plus drafting.
- Run the free prior art search before raising anything.
- Read grant IP conditions before accepting non-dilutive money.
- Reserve rights if you licence exclusively and still want to practise.
- Require minimum annual royalties in any exclusive licence.
- Get written, present-tense assignments from every contractor and founder.
- Prepare a freedom-to-operate answer. A patent is not one.
- Run your own diligence first. The checks are free.
- Raise to the next decision point, not to the finish line.