One Patent Away: How Smart IP Strategy Can 10x Your Exit Valuation with Craige Thompson

The Exit - Presented By Flippa

Technology

5 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 21 April 2025

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Want a quick estimate of how much your business is worth? With our free valuation calculator, answer a few questions about your business and you’ll get an immediate estimate of the value of your business. You might be surprised by how much you can get for it: https://flippa.com/exit -- In this episode of The Exit: In this tactical and deeply personal episode, patent attorney and engineer Craige Thompson shares how a devastating loss in his family sparked a lifelong mission to help entrepreneurs protect—and profit from—their innovations. From protecting EBITDA during an exit to engineering “commercially valuable choke points,” Craige reveals how patents can give you a monopoly-like edge and even solve for all five of Porter’s Five Forces. You'll learn when not to file a patent, how to evaluate whether your idea is truly novel, and why licensing your IP with “field of use” carve-outs can lead to surprising monetization wins. Whether you're startup-curious or exit-ready, this episode is packed with frameworks, red flags, and real-world examples to rethink IP as a strategic weapon, not just legal paperwork. -- Craige grew up in his father’s entrepreneurial small business in Fond du Lac, WI, where he learned the importance of protecting small businesses and helping them thrive. At Thompson Patent Law, Craige built a firm that focuses on creating Litigation Quality Patents® services—intellectual property assets designed to drive measurable business value. Their team ensures clients avoid unnecessary costs by focusing only on patents with real strategic potential. Through his Amazon #1 best-seller Patent Offense and the Litigation Quality Patent Podcast, Craige shares strategies to maximize IP value. Craige on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/craigeothompson/ Website: https://thompsonpatentlaw.com/ -- The Exit—Presented By Flippa: A 30-minute podcast featuring expert entrepreneurs who have been there and done it. The Exit talks to operators who have bought and sold a business. You’ll learn how they did it, why they did it, and get exposure to the world of exits, a world occupied by a small few, but accessible to many. To listen to the podcast or get daily listing updates, click on flippa.com/the-exit-podcast/

Transcript

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0:00.0	Before we get into the exit today, I want to talk about the certified M&A advisors that are on
0:05.7	Flippa. If you are an operator right now running a business and you're thinking about exiting,
0:10.8	you are going to want to get a free online business valuation on the exit landing page.
0:16.7	Without a doubt, it is the smartest thing you can do to start a process and get yourself organized.
0:23.0	So you're going to go to the URL, flippa.com, slash exit, to check out more, and let's jump into
0:28.1	the interview.
0:29.2	Below and welcome to the exit presented by Flipup, the number one platform to buy and sell online
0:34.2	businesses.
0:35.2	Flipa manages over a billion in deal value annually and combines
0:39.4	expert buy and sell side advisory with its market leading valuation tool, deal room,
0:43.9	off market offering, market insights, an AI-based deal-by-deal matching engine. Now for the exit.
0:50.9	The exit is a 30-minute podcast featuring awesome entrepreneurs who have been there and they
0:54.8	have done it. The exit talks to operators who have bought and sold businesses of all different sizes.
1:00.3	You learn how they did it, why they did it, and get exposure to the world of exits. It's a world
1:05.1	occupied by a small few, but accessible to many. On this episode of the Exit, I Sit Down with Craig Thompson.
1:12.1	This is a really tactical episode because it approaches an exit in a really different way.
1:18.7	And I really like to take a creative approach to a lot of these episodes,
1:22.4	but this one with Craig is unique because we're going to be talking a lot about patents
1:27.3	and protecting IP.
1:29.6	Now, as a patent holder myself, I patented something in college, went through the whole process,
1:35.0	and it was a crazy experience. And I think that taking the strategy of patenting IP
1:41.5	in the context of an exit, there's a lot of misconceptions, mistakes, and just
	...

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