Stop polishing the invention summary before you know the landscape
2026-07-11
← Back to BlogA common startup mistake is spending days polishing an invention summary before running the first patent search. The draft becomes cleaner, the wording gets smarter, and everyone feels progress. But none of that tells you whether the basic idea is already crowded. In early-stage patent work, an imperfect draft is often more useful than a beautiful one, because it gets you to the landscape faster. Once you see the nearby patents, you can decide what deserves tightening, what deserves broadening, and what may not be worth protecting at all. Search first, refine second. Otherwise you risk becoming very articulate about the wrong thing.