Creating wealth is an everlasting effort since it continuously requires increasing inflow and at the same time, decreasing outflow of the existing assets. The same goes with patents as well, where to reap the fruit of successful commercialization, a perfectly balanced strategy is needed during its creation and utilization. Despite investing money, time and resources, we seldom reach at the real destination of the journey which is called commercialization or monetization. A patent can very well be converted into a boon if it is well managed at each and every step of its journey. A petty mistake at one step may lead to perils at the other, hence, patent matters worth extra care!
Against the rich ancient history of key inventions originating from India, reinventing the wheel has been a common practice among the inventors due to many reasons, to fulfill a personal or a professional goal for instance. Though mind is the basic ingredient in an innovation process, the genuine ‘mind – to – machine’ effort is not reflected in most of the processes or product outcomes. “Patent from patents” is one of those very rare practices which should be applied by the innovators during the process of innovation. A fair and extra effort should appear first during generation by conducting prior art searches which can easily reveal the exact genuinity of the invention. A prior art search gives an eagle’s eye view of innovation and ultimately saves lots of time, effort and cost to be put, right at initial stage.
Competitiveness is the real essence in the business of monopolistic rights but we seldom identify and realize the same and hence always lag behind in the process of generating new IP. Worldwide patent commercialization statistics shows that merely 8% of worldwide granted patents generate 90% of the IP based revenue.
Protection of IP is another crucial step to be monitored. Since patent is a techno legal document, involvement of various expert exercises are to be taken during drafting, filing and prosecution of the application. One of the most preferred strategies during protection is to start with provisional filing followed by a complete. The provisional application gives a priority right worldwide with additional opportunity to add/amend/refine the invention within the time frame of 12 months. This 12 months’ time frame has great advantage as it allows one to rethink before taking most important actions including investment of resources. During this period, an applicant may discuss the potential and viability of particular technology with others and simultaneously improve the quality on the basis of feedback received during such discussions.
A preliminary prior art search should be in place during provisional filing. However, a detailed prior art search must be conducted after 8-10 months from the date of filing of provisional application. By doing so, the applicant will be able to dig those prior arts as well which are published after the filing of his own provisional application. Hence, the probability of grant of invention or improvement of quality of patent might be ensured till certain level. One may engage expert patent attorney during the prior art search and drafting of the complete specification.
Foreign filing strategy is one of the major milestones during protection phase. It is always advisable to invest strategically rather than heavily. The potential of particular technology must be first analyzed on territorial aspects before deciding for or against protection in any territory. Obviously, there is no point of filing a patent relating to anti-malarial drug in France. Since patent system provides an ample time to think upon foreign filing strategy, applicant should start strategizing their foreign business prospects right after filing of the provisional. Unfortunately, the applicants seldom plan these strategies and ultimately, they fail to protect the potential invention in potential jurisdiction due to lack of sufficient fund for suddenly thought of overseas protection.
We are living in a technology-driven era, but ironically, the life of most of the technologies is very less, sometimes as less as just 2-3 years. If one waits too long for a potentially big deal, the technology might itself get replaced by something else!
Therefore, decision of exploitation should be in right place and at the right time. Apart from these two essential elements of exploitation, there are many other factors too which are involved during exploitation viz. valuation, royalty terms, negotiation, deal making, etc. which are equally important and should ideally be dealt by an expert. Since it requires lots of expertise to handle the technology transfer process, involvement of desired professionals is required for this journey which ultimately drives you at the gold mine.
Re-generation process is required to keep the innovation cycle in momentum. A successful commercialization leads towards more innovation by spreading continuous motivation to the innovators. If we stop to innovate, others will take advantage over the improvement and would capture the already created gold mine. An ideal innovation process is like a chain reaction and must go on and on. One of the best examples of this re-generation process is General Electricals, the founder invented the first bulb and now the progeny is maintaining the momentum in innovations with more advanced technology in the same area as well as other unrelated areas. These steps if followed strategically will automatically convert your efforts into the boon for having the gold mine.
While fortune 500 companies have 84% worth in the form of intangible assets, we are still focusing on IP awareness and startup India scheme. While they are known as great creators, we are known as great users. As soon as we realize and imbibe these practices in real sense and its impact on our current status, we will take the “first step in a possible journey towards gold mine”. The only thing is to utilize and protect our intellect in like manner.
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