Patenting and Intellectual Property Rights in Academic — Industrial Ventures

Conclusions

The process of patenting is a valuable asset in a high-tech company’s survival and profiling. However, in order to be successful, one needs to analyze the extent that a company really needs to seek patent protection, and especially to seek for foreign patents. The costs, the risks, and the possible infringements must be thoroughly evaluated. The mere patenting of an invention does not necessarily lead to the proper exploitation of the invention. It is important to remember that the most crucial challenge for the entrepreneur and inventor is to ultimately convert the invention and technology into a business case and revenue.

In a well-known proverb, attributed to Thomas Alva Edison, inventiveness and creativity is claimed to contribute only one percent of the actual work. The other half, 99 percent is perspiration, filled with blood, sweat, and tears. The significance of proper, practical technology evaluation cannot be over emphasized. Often other patents form significant obstacles for ones own patenting. There are plentitude of cases, especially in the US, where somebody has already filled new, evolving field of high-tech with numerous patents, by thus practically blocking newcomers to enter the field. Sometimes, however, one succeeds to overcome this, sometimes penetration efforts go in vain, and sometimes a new technological focus is required for successful IPR policy. You should note that there are very good examples of high-tech telecom products and concepts, which have not succeeded commercially in the markets, like Apple Newton, HDTV and WAP, despite their proper patenting policy. One probable reason of failure has been in an over-confidence in the power of patenting and technological push. Patenting is a most useful tool in a high-tech company’s repertoire of protecting and developing its products, but in order to flourish, business always requires facts and a true vision of the meaning of the innovation.