Sense / non-sense of patents

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Sense / non sense of patents

The primary question is NOT about patents

Patents = a tool

Question = how to obtain commercial success

IP> 80% of value of company

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Intellectual Property

Publish Protect

Keep secret • Share of technology

• Progress technology

• PhD-thesis

• No investors

• Process

• Difficult to prove

• Difficult to analyse

• Protect but also publish

• Monolopy right to enforce

• Adds value to the company

• Attracts investors

Patent

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“The best way to kill an invention is ..….

….by publishing it….”

Lars Andersson,

Center for intellectual Property Studies

Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden

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What is a patent ?

A technical publication

A legal document

An economic right

A monopoly, the only legally accepted monopoly

Is a reward by society for disclosing technical

inventions

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Two “games”

How to obtain - Novel

- Inventive

- Industrial

applicable

What can you do

- License

- Enforce/monopoly

- Negotiate

- Marketing tool

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What people say

Patent = non-sense

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Patent = sense

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- Too expensive

- Can not enforce

- Nothing new

- Publication of trade secrets

- Strategy tool

- Use for marketing

- Determimes value of company

- Only way to enforce valuable

knowhow

Amount of cases

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Type #

Three dimensional printing 7.404

Selective deposition 2.672

Rapid prototyping 1.510

Rapid manufacturing 1.208

Stereolithography 975

3D modeling 783

# of families 14.191

Large number of patents for a narrow area

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Number of Rapid Prototyping: #

Applications 52.294

Publications 73.392

Countries 77

Granted patents 23.620 (45%)

Families with granted patents 748 (52%)

More numbers…….

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European patent applications filed in 2012

Main applicants in main technology fileds

Leading fields of technology in 2012

Applications Applicants # applications / applicant

Medical technology 10.412 3415 3,05

Electrical machinery, apparatus, energy 9.799 2234 4,39

Digital communication 9.592 806 11,90

Computer technology 8.288 1809 4,58

Transport 6.633 1629 4,07

Measurement 6.428 2119 3,03

Organic fine chemistry 6.002 1389 4,32

Engines, pumps, turbines 5.668 1213 4,67

Pharmaceuticals 5.364 2219 2,42

Biotechnology 5.309 1872 2,84

All fields 73.495 18705 3,93

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European filings 2003-2012

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Patents are an important tool for large companies

Large companies have large number of filings

(> 500 each)

In Rapid Prototyping > 14.000 patents

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Facts

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When to file – when not to file?

Product life cycle

Can be analyzed

Strategy

Turnover

Low Investment High

NO YES

Process

Product

Emotions ? ?

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# High

Low

Low

No

No

Short

Yes

Active

High

Long

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