What Separates Elite Patent Strategy from Adequate Patent Strategy

Authored by Babak Akhlaghi on June 17, 2026.  A good patent attorney captures the invention of the client.

A great patent attorney captures additional implementations, alternative implementations, and design-around prevention that are useful in licensing down the road.

The difference shows up in silence. The kind where the inventor has to think. Where they realize they haven’t considered what a competitor will build next.

What “Good” Looks Like

Good patent work documents what exists. The inventor describes their solution. The attorney writes it down. The claims cover the implementation as built.

This approach protects the current product. It might even survive examination. But it leaves the door open for competitors to step around the edges.

A patent with narrow claims gives licensees leverage to push rates down. Two patents in the same industry can command dramatically different royalty rates depending on subtle differences in claim language.

What “Great” Looks Like

Great patent attorney anticipates what comes next. It captures alternative implementations before competitors discover them. It prevents design-arounds before they happen.

This starts with a different set of questions. Not just “what did you build?” but “what could someone else build to get the same result?”

The probing questions framework:

What is the technical problem?

What is the technical solution?

What aspects give you competitive advantage?

What can be easily designed around?

What cannot be designed around?

When you describe multiple embodiments in the detailed description, you allow your attorney to draft claims covering various implementations. This creates a moving target for competitors trying to escape your patent.

Strategy first. File second.

How to Evaluate Your Patent Attorney

You know your patent attorney is doing elite work when they ask you questions you haven’t considered.

When they push you to think about alternative hardware configurations. When they ask what happens if a competitor uses a different material. When they make you articulate why your approach is hard to replicate.

If your patent attorney only asks you to describe what you built, you are getting adequate work. If they ask you to step outside of your comfort zone and think like a competitor trying to escape your patent, you are getting strategic work.

The silence that follows those questions is not wasted time. It is the moment where additional implementations emerge. Where design-around risks become visible. Where your patent transforms from documentation into leverage.

The Playbook Takeaway

Volume does not equal strength. A few strategically developed patents beat hundreds of applications that are easy to design around.

Before you file, ask yourself: Does this application capture only what we built, or does it anticipate what a competitor will build next?

If the answer is the former, you need a different conversation with your patent attorney.