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Patent strategies in the process‐related industries: outline of the problems
Author(s) -
Schmidt Martin P.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
randd management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.253
H-Index - 102
eISSN - 1467-9310
pISSN - 0033-6807
DOI - 10.1111/radm.12015
Subject(s) - monopoly , process (computing) , product (mathematics) , simple (philosophy) , business , industrial organization , product innovation , new product development , risk analysis (engineering) , computer science , economics , marketing , microeconomics , mathematics , philosophy , geometry , epistemology , operating system
Patents are the only way to obtain a legally enforceable monopoly allowing to exclude others. Building an efficient patent strategy is more difficult in process‐related industries than in product‐oriented industries because the impact of the existence of the monopoly on the market situation is much more difficult to forecast for process‐related inventions than for product innovation. The common distinction between product patents (or product claims) and process patents (or process claims) is of little use for approaching this question. A simple four‐step approach is presented here, based on the operative decisions that need to be taken. Two illustrative examples show how to apply this approach and how to deepen the analysis of real situations.