Eric McGill is the founder and lead analyst at Patentelligence, an AI-powered patent valuation and decision-support platform. Before building it he spent more than two decades inside the technology transfer world - Senior Technology Manager at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's Strategic Partnerships Office, plus work for the FDA, two US Army labs, universities, startups and tech transfer hubs. He has screened over 1,500 technologies. He is also an inventor himself: he dropped out of a molecular biology PhD to commercialize his own patent, spent six years building the product and the business around it, and eventually licensed it to a larger partner.
In this episode, Eric joins David Breitenbach, CCO at PatentRenewal.com, to answer the question that sits underneath every patent portfolio decision: how do you know which patents to keep alive, and which to let lapse?
In this episode, you'll learn:
◼️ Why "renew everything" is the real default at most companies - and what it costs
◼️ What CLP (commercialization likelihood percentage) measures, and how 29 factors feed into it
◼️ Which commercialization factors carry real signal
◼️ Why inventor and organization reputation is the most overrated signal in patent value
◼️ The "application effect": how platform patents get killed by picking the wrong vertical
◼️ The first steps for an inventor with no budget and no valuation tool
◼️ How to turn a renewal deadline into a due diligence trigger instead of a payment
◼️ Why half of US patents are still being maintained at 11.5 years - and why most of them shouldn't be
00:00 Introduction
01:46 Eric’s journey from inventor to IP commercialization
03:58 Why impressive patents can have little commercial value
07:20 How companies make patent renewal decisions
11:44 Evaluating patents with 29 commercialization factors
17:00 Practical advice for inventors and patent owners
20:58 Reassessing patents that look valuable on paper
27:20 Rapid-fire questions
Follow Eric:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericsmcgill/
https://www.patentelligence.ai/
Join PatentRenewal.com's circle on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/patentrenewalcom/
Follow David:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-breitenbach/
GET IN TOUCH
Our website: https://patentrenewal.com/
About us
At PatentRenewal.com, we believe IP renewals should be simple, transparent, and stress-free. We care about innovation and about making IP easier to understand and easier to use. That's why we created Talk IP to me, the podcast that brings fresh conversations to the world of intellectual property. In each episode, innovators, IP experts, founders, and legal minds share real stories, hard-won lessons, and practical insights you can actually apply in your work.
Our goal is simple: make IP feel human, practical, and accessible
