Welcome to another episode of Conscious Design podcast and today Ian is visited by Rich Goldstein who will talk a bit about patents. After Rich introduces himself he goes on and explains how he views the problematic of patenting and based on his experience and opinion when you should consider to patent and when it is useless. Then Rich continues to talk about the problem of very few patents being left for the people to take and how minor differences can win you a new patent for a new idea. Rich and Ian both talk about the defensive patent technique and Rich shares his share of criticism for this technique. Rich talks about how sometimes even a public product that is well known can cause patent problems if the patent is not done properly or is missing. Rich and Ian then both debate over design patents and how they are rising in popularity. Rich then invites people to check out his book or to get into contact with him.