It’s important to remember that patents can be issued not just for life-saving medical equipment – and hopefully diagnostic methods – but also on board games, like Monopoly. And these patents can be developed by anyone, male or female. However, even if your patented game says you will earn 15% more for your endeavors if you are female, this doesn’t always translate to the real world. Sometimes the best you can hope for is a little credit on the box. For now, anyway.

Stop and think for a minute about your bottom line. Is it everything you dreamed it would be? Of course not. You want your business to continue growing. And for that happen, you need to be at the cutting edge of what’s relevant in your field. When you find yourself there, you’ve got a good view of the competition. You want to be at least one step ahead of your competitor, but not everyone knows how to do that.