How do you make money from a patent? (More ways than you think!)
In a series of blog posts, Marco Coolen offers a glimpse into his work as a Dutch and European patent attorney at AOMB.
Published on April 5, 2026
Marco, a patent attorney at AOMB since 2013, shares his expertise on IO+ about patents—how they work, why they matter, and when they lose their value.
A patent is not a factory. It produces nothing. No components, no products, no truckloads of deliveries. And yet, you can make good money from it.
That may sound strange, but at its core, a patent is an economic instrument. It gives you an exclusive right. And exclusive rights are valuable as long as others want to use that technology.
The most obvious way to make money from a patent is simple: you use it yourself.
You develop a product, bring it to market, and sell it. The patent ensures that competitors cannot simply apply the same technology. This reduces price pressure, increases margins, and gives you more time to recoup your investment.
But that is only one model.
Marco Coolen, photo © Bart van Overbeeke
The licensing route
Many knowledge institutions and research organizations follow a different strategy. They develop technology but do not build products themselves.
So what do they do?
They protect their invention with a patent and then offer a license to companies that do want to turn it into a product. For a company, such a license can be highly attractive. Instead of repeating years of R&D investment, you can use an existing solution and get to market faster. Meanwhile, the knowledge institute earns licensing income. Everyone wins.
Patent pools and standards
In sectors where many companies work with the same technical standards, another structure often emerges: the patent pool. Companies combine their patents into a single package. Intermediaries manage that package and sell licenses to other parties.
This is common in telecom, video compression, and other technologies where multiple inventions together form one standard. The alternative would be endless negotiations or even lawsuits. A patent pool makes the system more manageable: one license provides access to multiple essential patents.
Patent trolls and sharks
There is also a category that often sparks debate: companies that acquire patents with the aim of initiating legal claims.
These so-called patent trolls do not produce products themselves and invest little in technology. Their business model revolves around enforcing licenses through litigation.
They are frequently criticized because their contribution to innovation appears limited. However, there is also a milder variant: so-called patent sharks. These focus less on legal procedures and more on commercial deals. Instead of going straight to court, they seek partnerships and licensing agreements.
The real insight
The common thread is simple: a patent is a tradable right. You can use it to protect your own products. You can license it. You can sell it. You can contribute it to collaborations. Or even bundle it into larger technology platforms.
What matters most is that there is demand for the technology. Because ultimately, patents follow the same rule as any other asset: if it has value for others, you can trade it. And sometimes, a strong patent turns out to be economically more powerful than a factory.
The world of patents
In this series, Marco Coolen takes us each week into an example drawn from his extensive experience as a patent attorney at AOMB.