How to come up with ideas for patents

The need for patenting inventions for business is covered in almost every second article on intellectual property. But what to do when it is necessary to protect the company's product, and when talking with developers, the answers are more meaningful than the other: “I just improved the code”, “there’s nothing new here”, “I just fixed bugs”, “I’m not interested” and “ leave us alone, we have already proposed everything, ”etc.? Recipes under the cut.

Faced with such a reaction (and also, in principle, with the problem of finding patentable ideas), I highlighted a few points that help gather ideas and organize the process to work on protecting intellectual property in a company.

Clarify key points to potential inventors.

First you need to clarify what a patent is, what it is used for, which protects, the benefit for the company and for the developer himself.
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For example:
A patent is a document confirming the exclusive right (the right to prohibit the use of others), authorship and priority of an invention, utility model or industrial design.

The issued patent allows the owner to prohibit any unauthorized use of the invention described in the document, that is, to protect the product from copying and claims of others to the result of the developer’s creative activity. However, exclamations can immediately arise from the same developer, that there was no creative activity, and everything is ordinary and simple. The solution is to analyze any of his work and show what can be considered novelty in it, or to show what can be added to it so that it appears.

The right holder company may receive the following benefits from the patent:
• Protection from the attacks of competitors and trolls;
• Copy protection;
• Sale of licenses for protected technologies;
• Sale of technology;
• Increasing the value of the company (IP is an intangible asset of the company).

For the inventor, there is a slightly different benefit from patenting:
• Scientific publication with confirmation of the novelty of the proposed technologies;
• Payment of bonuses for patentable inventions created as part of official duties.

With this approach, even if the developer is not very clear about the goal of patenting ideas, he will be motivated by improved summaries or bonuses.

If the developer insists only on improving the code, and that it is the written code (updated, rewritten, improved, etc.) that is the subject of the patent, you can let it know that the code is an object of copyright, not a patent . In the patent application it is necessary to describe the method or function, namely, to see what the written code performs, what problems it solves in the product and what improves it.

Give examples of patented ideas.

However, it is not always clear what is meant by this and what ideas can be proposed for patenting.

To solve this problem, I advise you to prepare a presentation with examples of already filed applications and issued patents (preferably your company, if not, you can also from the Internet).

Given that the invention in the application is described in a peculiar way, it is worth explaining separately the idea, and what is written in claims and description. This will make it possible to show how a patent application is made from the proposed idea and which ideas can in principle be protected (including “delusional”, imperceptible from the outset and even the smallest).

Brainstorm

At the next stage, if the programmer does not have any ideas and he still holds his position, you can organize brainstorming, group or one on one.

In terms of experience, group results are better in terms of the number of ideas; however, after such meetings, one-on-one conversations are needed to discuss individual ideas proposed.

It is more effective to organize group discussions of 3-6 people, taking into account the sphere of employment and knowledge of each of the invitees. In Parallels, I try to talk on teams, for example, one day the Parallels RAS client application team, another day on the VDI component of the same product, etc.

So people will be more open and discuss any ideas or problems with their colleagues, the main thing is just to talk them. It is not worth discussing the details of each proposed idea at once with everyone - only time will be lost, it is better to distribute as many ideas as possible and then separately meet with the author and clarify everything. At such meetings, ideas that do not fit are also immediately recalled due to the prior art (analogue) known to one or several participants. Moreover, ideas can arise both from what has been done in the product and from what is planned or can be done. There have been cases when new features for the company's product have been created from Brainstorms for patents, which were later implemented.

In a one-on-one meeting, it is more difficult for a programmer to relax, so it’s better to go over what he has already implemented and see how else it would be possible to improve the parts of the product with which he works.

Advice: invite in addition to any brainstorming additionally a person who has been working with the product for a long time, preferably with deep technical knowledge and who has somehow interacted with patents (there are already patented ideas).
On the brainstorms it is better to collect all the ideas, spherical and narrowly applicable, unworked and realized. And only then decide what to do with them.

Analyze the new product functionality.

Another way to collect ideas for patents is to analyze the new functionality in the latest and planned releases with project managers and product managers. There is also no need to focus on the details and details, everything can be explained later with the developer working on a specific functionality. The purpose of this analysis is to identify potential ideas for patents.

For example, from time to time I organize a meeting with the project manager of Parallels Desktop and the manager of the same product, where we go through the list implemented in the finished update. In parallel with the written out potential ideas, I write down the names of the developers who are working on them. Next, I’ll clarify all the questions I’m interested in specifically with them, which does not waste management time and provides an opportunity to elaborate implementation in detail.

Do not forget that first of all you should work on the functions that have already been implemented in the published updates. Of course, it depends on the legislation of the country, but in most cases they can be patented only for a certain period of time.

Also, do not discard ideas related to innovations that can be applied to your product. It can be useful to discuss them with the management and analyze the possibility of introducing them into the product, and as a result, the likelihood of the invention appears.

Organize the process of analyzing ideas and working on patent applications

All the collected ideas can be discussed on the patent committee, it will allow a comprehensive look at the proposed inventions and decide what to work with, what needs to be finalized and what is not suitable for protection. On the patent committee, there is also the likelihood of the emergence of new ideas, since, when discussing the proposed ones, participants may modify, merge, or even come across a completely different idea.

We have 6 people in this committee, and it includes a representative of each major project and the head of the company's entire development.

At such a discussion, ideas are analyzed taking into account not only the three criteria of patentability (novelty, usefulness and non-obviousness), but also the need for a patent for the company.

Clearly show the process of processing ideas in the company to the developers and their management, where the ideas are written down, which application development stages exist and what I would like to see from the authors of the inventions.

Total

Properly motivated programmers will be able to find inventions in the company's products, but it is worth helping them in understanding the goals, tasks, processes and organization of events. The correct approach also plays an important role, remember: people are different - interests are different, someone listens only to the boss, someone is interested in bonuses, and someone just loves everything new and is happy to work together.