This article addresses something that hits home for many inventors: the emotional and practical challenges of letting go of an invention (often one you think of as “your baby”). Whether selling a patent, licensing technology, or shelving an idea, parting with something you are proud to have birthed with your brain alone can feel overwhelming.
As odd as it sounds, we can borrow from psychotherapy and rely on emotional skills to help you move on while embracing the opportunities that come with letting go.
Why Letting Go is So Difficult for Inventors
Inventors usually have a strong attachment to their inventions. If you’re an inventor, your creation isn’t just a product or a piece of intellectual property; it’s a part of you. You’ve nurtured it from a high-level idea to a fully realized and implemented invention. You’ve lived with it occupying space in your head for years. Letting go (whether through selling, licensing, or moving on to the next project) can feel like saying goodbye to a piece of yourself.
This connection can be understood with theories like the “personality theory of property,” which says that when we own something, it becomes more valuable to us than it might objectively be. For inventors, this sense of ownership is heightened by the enormous investment of brainpower (and often money) required to go from idea to invention.
The Emotional Process of Letting Go
Letting go isn’t about transferring ownership, that’s the easy part. It’s an emotional event that can involve fear, grieving, uncertainty, second-guessing, and general discomfort. This is particularly true if you have only one invention and it has become your” baby. There are strategies that can help.
The thing to remember is that selling your patent is just another part of inventing it. You nurture it, grow it, and at the appropriate time set it free.
Parents who over-participate in their kids’ lives, to the point where the kids suffer from it, are often called “Helicopter Parents”.
The first step is acknowledging that letting go is an integral part of innovation. A patent lasts only 20 years from the priority date, so no matter what you do, it is going to stop being something you have any control over simply with the passage of time. That clock also means that if you spend 20 years vacillating between keeping it and selling it, your choice is made for you: You sell it to the general public for zero compensation when the 20 years are up.
Don’t be a Helicopter Inventor. Just don’t. You don’t need to control every aspect of how your invention is used. You don’t need to keep it locked in your lab for fear it will somehow suffer by being out in the world.
Letting it out of your lab is not even close to the end of the road. Your invention can flourish in the hands of the purchasers, and you are freed to work on the next big thing. You can also require the purchaser to include you in the implementation of the invention (although that might well reduce the sales price).
The 20-year patent lifespan means that it will expire no matter what you do. Better to control how you lose control than to just let it slide into expiration. By contrast, trademarks can last forever and copyrights last effectively forever (seventy years after the author’s death in the US, with exceptions, such as works made for hire that expire on a different timeline).
Take Yes for an Answer
Selling an invention is a sign of success. Take the win and use your time to build and invent the next big thing.
A Personal Perspective
As an inventor with over 250 patents, I understand how difficult it can be to part with an innovation that’s become part of you. I’ve been there. I’ve experienced the emotions and difficulties of letting go.
Your creativity doesn’t end when you sell your patent. But your free time to develop new patents means that the loss of one patent often births another.
Pingback: The High Velocity Innovation Challenge: Choosing Which Inventions to Pursue