Patents are the statutory right granted to the inventor or applicant for their invention for maximum 20 years of time from priority or filing date so that no one can manufacture and sell the products without the prior permission of the inventor or applicant. Patents are the reason we are able to see the technology moving at a speed of the light speed. Since time memorial, when the first patent was granted and today where the companies are filing patents and granted the patents on the latest technology. In search of a better world, the imagination and thinking power of human lead to various discoveries and invention with innovations on existing technologies and products.
The inventor or applicants in search of new and better technology which can transform the world are creating new products which have the lead human race to make this world a place of heaven with facilities. Patents are playing a prominent and important role in the entire technology life cycle, from initial Research and development to the market introduction stages including licensing, where competitive technologies can be protected with patents and licensed out to third parties to expand financial opportunities are creating a competitive environment around the world. This competition leads to the new invention and by exploitation of the existing technologies, a new and better product with advanced technologies are coming, helping the dire needs of human.
A patent can also be licensed to another party (a licensee), which permits that party to manufacture, use and sell the invention. In return, the licensor usually receives royalty payments from the licensee. The company getting the license to manufacture or sell the product or technology will do their research on particular product and technology and a new product can be expected by investing in research and development. The huge potential in technologies and inventions lead to the in-depth analysis of patents with the prior art and then shaping the future.
The latest trends in the technologies which will lead to the competitiveness among the companies and to introduce the newer and better products in the markets The unavailability of such information is unfortunate from an analytical perspective, since that information could be used to identify the utility of patents and the networks of patent information diffusion and application.
An Example of how the patent has changed the way in which the telephone invented by Graham bell and then got patent in the year 1876, and after that how the patent help other inventors or competitive companies or person to think to make it more efficient and to reach maximum people across the globe. The invention of telephone in 1876 leads to the introduction of candlestick in 1900 and then introduction of rotary in 1940 where the function was to rotate the dialand then release but soon this products and technology were lagging behind as the AT&T in 1963, introduces the push-button or touch tone which allowed phones to use a keypad to dial numbers and make phone calls and most important was that a person can make the long distance calls sitting in another region. After this, the answering machine on telephone made the telephone to record the calls. The beginning of 1980 saw the change in the technology and products which lead to the invention where the telephone were replaced by the portable phones and people across the world can call to another one. It was in the year 1984 when first ever mobile phone was launched by Motorola and it actually shapes the world with dire needs to introduce the technology of signals and communications within a phone. Since 1984, the patent tug-of-war between Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, Microsoft, and Apple was there. As having a patent means protection for twenty years and other cannot use without prior permission from the inventor or from the applicant. To use the technology, the license should be granted and after that companies can use the patent and information so as to remain alive in world.
The patented innovation has performance innovation which increases the performance of the addition of functions, the durable innovation which decrease in damaging effects, an ergonomic innovation which means more ease of use, economic innovation which lowers the costs and made it easy for the end user to reach.
The actual use of Patents in technical, business and legal information for advancement of technology and products can be used for a number of different and broad purposes including :
- Patented and non-patented literature of prior art searches to establish a baseline for technical research and development activities
- To identify the key patenting trends with respect to technology in the same discipline or in inter-discipline patents and innovation patterns
- Once patents have expired, the information is freely available for others to use and by way of dissemination of the information the people may reach to a new technology or new products
- As the information related to Patent is public, patent databases whether paid or non-paid constitute an important source of technological knowledge of patented as well as non-patented literature. At the same time, individual patents are often only the part of a larger technology solution and written in such a way that know-how and other specific knowledge are required to fully deploy the invention to an economically profitable extent with leave loopholes for new technology to immerse within the sphere
- Patent trends can be analyzed to identify Research and Development trends with know-how and to forecast innovations. The portfolio analysis which includes the number of patents filed in a certain field, the geographical location of patent filings, the name of filing organizations, applicants, and inventors, the referencing of patents with prior arts and the patent families around the world is used as indicators of innovation. Patent filings are often relevant to markets formation, patent analysis can generate valuable information about market development, such as which fields of technology current businesses intend to enter in the years ahead
- Patenting of an invention is an indicator of RD&D progress and which will result in key technology which will emerge or be successful in the market
- Competitive assessments of patent information in combination with information such as GDP and RD&D investments can indicate the technology competitiveness of a country or the economic performance of a company or country
- Quality patents will ultimately help to increase the marketplace as well as economic growth and will help to enhance further technological innovation
