How Many Patents Should a Startup File?

Rethinking Patent Strategy When Costs Drop from $10–15k to a Few Hundred Dollars

For decades, the question “How many patents should we file?” had a predictable answer for most startups: “As few as you can afford.” Traditional preparation and filing costs of $10,000–$15,000 per application forced founders to be highly selective, often delaying filings until funding rounds closed or major deals loomed.

But when the cost of preparing and filing a quality patent application drops to just a few hundred dollars, that calculus changes dramatically. Low-cost, high-quality filings allow startups to protect more ideas earlier, building a stronger IP foundation and giving investors confidence in the company’s defensibility.

The Old Model: Pick Only the “Crown Jewels”

Under the traditional model, startups typically filed one or two “flagship” applications covering their most obvious revenue drivers. Follow-on ideas were left unprotected or lumped into the first filing as “future work.” This approach minimized legal spend but left valuable aspects of the technology exposed—and often forced awkward tradeoffs between speed, breadth, and depth of protection.

The New Model: File Early, File Often—But With a Plan

When preparation costs are a fraction of traditional pricing, the question is no longer “Can we afford to file?” but “What’s the smart way to build a patent portfolio?”

A sensible new approach for startups looks like this:

• File provisional applications on every significant product or feature milestone.
  Think of each provisional as a time-stamped placeholder: it locks in your priority date without committing to a full non-provisional until you see market traction.

• Use low-cost filings to test patent scope.
  With multiple provisionals, you can experiment with different technical angles or market verticals. When data shows which direction gains traction, you decide which applications to convert to non-provisionals or PCT filings.

• Stage your investments.
  You’re no longer forced to bet $15k up front on an unproven idea. Instead, you can file several provisionals for a few hundred dollars each and selectively upgrade only the winners to full applications once funding or customers materialize.

A Practical Rule of Thumb

• Early Stage (Pre-Seed/Seed): File provisionals on each key innovation or major feature. Often, 3–7 initial filings is realistic for an innovative startup.

• Growth Stage (Series A+): Continue provisionals but begin converting the highest-value ones into non-provisionals or international filings to secure longer-term rights.

• Mature Stage: Build a pipeline where each product iteration or customer-driven innovation has a corresponding provisional, with quarterly reviews to decide which to advance.

Investor Signaling and Valuation

Investors increasingly view a startup’s IP portfolio as a proxy for execution and defensibility. A well-documented pattern of timely filings—even provisionals—signals discipline, innovation velocity, and foresight. Because the filings cost less, you can show a broader pipeline of protected ideas without overextending your legal budget.

Bottom Line

The question isn’t “How many patents should we file?” but “How do we use low-cost filings strategically to capture innovation as it happens?” With high-quality applications now available at a fraction of the traditional cost, startups can build a patent portfolio that scales with their innovation—filing early, filing often, and converting only the applications that align with real-world traction and funding.