Your simple idea could be a patent treasure

Anything you do differently than you did yesterday could be the start of an invention. When they hear the word “invention,” many entrepreneurs immediately think of spectacular breakthroughs, revolutionary products, or complex technology. But the reality is often much simpler.

If you solve an everyday problem, make something faster, smarter, or cheaper, you may be closer to a patent than you think.

Simple often feels less innovative than it is

A common reason why innovations remain unprotected is that they feel too obvious. You work on an improvement for months and see it grow every day, and before you know it, it seems logical that you forget how much work and thought went into it.

But what feels regular and straightforward to you may be anything but obvious to an outsider, or worse, a competitor. Simple does not mean easy. Especially when you consider how many companies struggle to solve a problem correctly in the first place.

Marco Coolen, photo © Bart van Overbeeke

When is your innovation worth protecting?

Fortunately, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to discover whether you have something that might be patentable. You can make an initial assessment with a few simple questions:

✔️ Does this really solve a problem?

Think of processes that become less error-prone, products that last longer, or production that becomes faster and cheaper.

✔️ Does it make something more efficient or cheaper?

Efficiency improvements are often excellent candidates for patents, especially if they provide a competitive advantage.

✔️ Would someone else want to make money from this?

If you think, “I could make a profit from this,” chances are that others will too. And that's exactly why protection is essential.

Not everything new is patentable

You have to remain critical: not every improvement is automatically patentable. An invention must be new, inventive, and industrially applicable. Yet, the most significant opportunity is missed because companies don't even have their innovations assessed. After all, they convince themselves that it's “too simple.”

Yet it is often the simplest, most elegant solutions that have the biggest impact. Think of the paper clip, the zipper, or the Post-it note - no complex technology, just ingenious simplicity.

The lesson? Don't underestimate yourself

The innovations that take your company forward may also be attractive to others. And if something has value, it deserves protection. So please don't wait until a competitor copies your solution before you think about it.

If in doubt, seek advice from a patent attorney. They can often quickly assess whether an application is worthwhile, preventing valuable innovations from remaining unprotected.

The best inventions are often the simplest. What seems obvious to you may be revolutionary for the market. Take your innovations seriously, even (or especially) if they seem simple. You could be sitting on a gold mine.