When is it TOO Early to file a patent application?

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I get calls from entrepreneurs all the time who want to know if they can patent their invention.

I have 2 answers to this question: a legal one and a business one.

Legal Timing

If you cannot tell me how to make and use your invention, then it is too early. For example, “I have this idea for a flux capacitor. When installed in a DMC DeLorean and driven 88 miles per hour and powered with 1.21 gigawatts, then the car can travel back in time.”

Sounds great, but my main question will be: How exactly do you make a flux capacitor?

We don’t need generalized concepts; we need recipes, formulas, blueprints, or wire diagrams, etc.

If you cannot tell me how to make it or do it, then you do not have an invention, you have a research goal.

By analogy, a movie pitch is not enough to make a movie: “Hey I’ve got this great idea for a movie. It’s goanna be like Wonder Woman meets Godzilla meats Star Wars!” That’s sounds great, but before we can protect your idea, you need a script.

Business Timing

You can patent an invention as soon as you can tell someone how to make and use your invention. But just because you can do it, doesn’t make it a good idea. Or a lucrative one. You might want to prove to yourself that you can get your invention to work. You may want to do some market research and business analysis to prove to yourself that selling your invention will be profitable.