The Importance of Patents for Scientists

Patents have become a hot topic and the subject of much media attention. If your main source of information about patents is the newspapers, you could be forgiven for having an extremely distorted view of what patents are, what they do, and what benefits and problems are associated with them. All scientists want to be able to improve the world in some way, whether by contributing in a fundamental way to the fund of human knowledge or by delivering new and valuable technology. If you are a scientist making inventions, it is increasingly important that you should have an understanding of the importance of patents in the modern world, and should have sufficient understanding of the patent system to make sure that your aims for your inventions are achievable. This talk sets out some basic facts about patents and also de-bunks some the most common misapprehensions about patents