How to Evaluate Patent Quality

Short answer: You probably can’t. Here’s why.

The market is broken.

It’s surprisingly easy to file a bad patent application—and surprisingly hard to tell the difference until it’s too late.

Many founders assume that if a service looks polished, has nice testimonials, or is used by others, it must be good enough. But in the world of patents, that logic breaks down.

Two big problems:

Patent quality is invisible—until it matters most.
Provisional applications don’t get examined. That means you might file something that looks fine now, but won’t support claims later—when investors, competitors, or the USPTO come calling.
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    •You can’t tell if the document has the right legal structure.

    •You can’t tell if it supports downstream non-provisional claims.
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    •You can’t tell if it aligns with your business objectives.

You’d need a skilled patent attorney to catch these issues—and they usually don’t come in until after it's filed.
The feedback loop is broken.
Most startup patents are never tested in court, licensing, or diligence. When they are, the problems stay quiet:
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    • The startup gets acquired and the acquiring attorneys fix things quietly.

    • The board decides not to assert the patent and moves on.

    • The founders never realize their patent wasn’t enforceable.

This means even “popular” services, lawyers, and tools can generate low-quality filings for years before anyone notices—or says anything.

CoPilot Tools: Not Built for Founders

AI co-pilots are a step forward, but they still assume you know what you’re doing. Unless you’re a trained patent professional, you won’t know how to:

Determine scope for independent claims
Decide which features must be disclosed for enablement
Preserve flexibility for future non-provisional strategies

These tools are useful if you’re already an experienced patent drafter. Idea Clerk is designed for founders who aren’t.

Cheap Options Cut Corners

Unfortunately, many low-cost alternatives—like unlicensed technical writers, fly-by-night firms, or offshore services—simply generate “good enough” documents for filing.
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But “good enough to file” is not the same as:

Good enough to support enforceable claims.
Good enough to survive investor due diligence.
Good enough to protect your freedom to operate.

So... what can you do?

Patent quality is hard to evaluate directly, but here are a few suggestions

Talk to real patent attorneys

Not all attorneys are created equal. Try to speak with patent attorneys who actively work with VC-backed startups—especially those doing Series A or later work. Ask them:

What kinds of mistakes do they see in startup provisionals?
What services have they had to fix?
If they had to use a self-serve tool, which would they choose?

If you ask enough attorneys privately, you’ll start to hear patterns.

Examine incentives

Some services optimize for speed or cost at the expense of quality.

Others offer tools designed to help attorneys—not replace them.

Idea Clerk was built specifically for startup founders, not lawyers or legal marketers. We’ve baked expert judgment directly into the product so you don’t need to supply it yourself.

Common approaches—and why they don’t work

Looking at the website ➝ Good UX ≠ good legal work product

Reading testimonials ➝ Most customers can’t judge quality

Asking other founders ➝ Most never learned their patents were flawed

Asking advisors ➝ Many aren’t trained in IP

Comparing prices ➝ Doesn’t reflect downstream costs

Relying on DIY templates ➝ Quality depends on what supports the claims

Patent quality is hard to spot up front—but the consequences of getting it wrong can be huge.

We started Idea Clerk to change that.
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If you have questions about how to evaluate patent options—or want to better understand where Idea Clerk fits in—reach out: