The Menlo Park Playbook for Mid-Market Innovation

Edison's laboratory worked because invention had a structure around it. This guide translates that structure into a framework a mid-market company can actually run, without a research division and without pausing the business.

Why Mid-Market Companies Underfile

Companies in the middle-market revenue range frequently do a substantial amount of genuine invention and file very little of it. Common reasons include:

• Invention happens inside product delivery, so nobody labels it as invention
• No owner: IP sits between engineering, legal, and the executive team
• A belief that patents are only for hardware or for large research organizations
• Uncertainty about cost, which leads to indefinite postponement
• Concern that software or process innovations will not qualify, without ever testing the question

None of these are technical barriers. They are process gaps, which is precisely what the Menlo Park model was designed to close.

Stage 1: Survey the Business

Before generating anything new, map what already exists. A useful survey covers:

• Product architecture: the components and interactions that are specific to your implementation
• Operational processes: workflows your team built because no off-the-shelf approach worked
• Internal tooling: systems built for internal use are a frequently overlooked source of candidates
• Integrations and data handling: how systems are connected is often where novel technique lives
• Competitive landscape: what competitors have filed, and where the white space may be

Stage 2: Run the Lab

The working session is the core of the method. A few characteristics tend to improve results:

• Include the engineers and operators who solved the problem, not only leadership
• Ask what was hard and what had to be invented, rather than asking what is patentable
• Capture the technical mechanism, not the marketing description of the feature
• Record everything in a consistent disclosure format so candidates are comparable
• Resist filtering during the session; screening comes next and benefits from volume

Stage 3: Build the Patent Record

Screening comes before drafting. A practical screen weighs:

Candidates that pass move to drafting with qualified patent counsel. Provisional applications are often used at this stage to establish a filing date while commercial validation continues, though a provisional must adequately describe the invention to provide the benefit of its date. See our guide on prior art search for more on the screening step.

Stage 4: Extend the Portfolio

A first filing is a starting position. Extension work typically includes:

• Deciding within the provisional year whether to convert, expand, or abandon
• Using continuation practice to pursue additional claim scope as the market clarifies
• Filing improvement applications as the underlying technology evolves
• Evaluating international filing needs against actual market presence and budget
• Retiring filings that no longer reflect how the business competes

Setting a Cadence

The single largest difference between companies that build portfolios and companies that intend to is calendar discipline. A workable rhythm for most mid-market organizations is a quarterly invention session, a semiannual portfolio review, and an annual strategy check against the competitive landscape.

Common Pitfalls

• Filing on everything: volume without screening consumes budget and produces low-leverage assets
• Waiting for certainty: markets rarely clarify before filing windows close
• Describing features instead of mechanisms: disclosures that read like product copy are hard to prosecute
• Ignoring inventorship: incorrect inventorship can create problems later
• Treating IP as a legal task: it is a commercial strategy that happens to involve legal filings

If you want help running this process, our engagement model is built directly on it, and What Edison Got Right About IP Strategy covers the thinking behind it.

Sources

• United States Patent and Trademark Office, general guidance on provisional applications, continuations, and disclosure requirements
• Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, first-inventor-to-file provisions
• National Park Service, Thomas Edison National Historical Park, materials on laboratory organization and practice