How do we get around the chicken-egg problem of having to invest money to protect IP in order to secure investments from VCs?

Hi there! It is definitely true that IP protection will help to attract investors ; a pending patent application (if possible) is sufficient. However, if this would be too expensive, and you wish to already obtain seed funding on the basis of your still unprotected idea, consider (i) a standard confidentiality agreement with candidate investors, and (ii) establishing proof of your invention as well as the date thereof. As for the second aspect, each country will have own procedures fit for such purposes. In this respect, do not rely upon the often tried and always failed approach of sending a letter to yourself. Hope this helps. Best regards, Kirian

I agree with Kirian in that a patent pending is usually enough to satisfy an investor, but they may want to see the application and the amount of effort put into a prior art search if your invention is in a crowded space. Filing a provisional application is still an investment, but it should cost much less than $30,000. The struggle of getting enough money together to file a provisional prior to talking with investors is one that many of my clients face as well. I don’t know of any good angel investors that will sign a confidentiality agreement prior to speaking with you the first time. If you can scrape together enough money for a high quality provisional application, it may provide a significant return on investment through additional investments and future licensing agreements.