A.  cost of getting a patent:  ($5-6k total; $400 is only the filing fee)
B.  who is the real inventor?!
1.  make sure its not an employee sitting w/ you who is the inventor, but who has a K signing away their rts to the invention
2.  fraudulent misidentification of inventor is incurable and voids patent
C.  chronology of invention and subsequent use
1.  any & all disclosures to 3Ps
2.  abaondment?
D.  Every invention is a solution to a problem.  What is the most similar solution & what differentiates the invention from the closest prior art?  what are the benefits from the differences…
E.  client’s need/desire for a patentability search (see if there’s already a patent for those claims; to see if you can get a patent)
note that a patentability search is not a search for infringement!
hidden things!
-    mis-filings
-    pending apps
-    non-standard language (& foreign prior art)
F.  retainer