Let's assume that your company is engaged in research and production activities intended to obtain new, competitive products and/or technologies. Early at the stage of preparing a technical assignment, you need to think about patent research.
Patent research is understood as research conducted in the course of creating, developing and selling industrial products in order to ensure a high technical level and competitiveness of these products.
Patent research is conducted at all stages of the life cycle of industrial products. For example, when making the technical assignment for creating new or upgraded products, or when conducting research and development works.
Totally - different patent research can be conducted at different research stages:
1. Thus, at the initial stage of research or development works, patent research can be conducted in order to analyze trends in the development of the objects under research in the basic scientific and technical areas.
2. At the stage of making the technical assignment for research and development works or at the stage of theoretical or experimental research, the requirements to the object under research are established, taking into account the requirements of consumers to this type of product, trends in the development of the product itself, its market and the achievements of leading competitive companies - in order to choose the area of research and justify this choice.
What the patent research for?
• Conducting patent research for trends in the development of technology level will help to protect you from the wrong step at the very beginning of scientific research.
• At the final stages of research and development works, it is advisable to conduct patent research of the created product and/or technology for patentability and freedom-to-operate.
This type of research will determine whether your solution is patentable, i.e. whether it can be protected as an invention or a utility model. Besides, based on the results of research for freedom-to-operate, the risk of infringement of patent rights of third parties when launching the finished products in the market will be assessed.
And, as a result, you get competitive products and/or technology, for which it is possible to obtain a patent for inventions or utility models. This, in its turn, provides you with opportunities to gain additional revenue from the use of patents, as well as to increase the value of the company's assets and to improve the image of your company.
Patent research can also be conducted to identify leading companies engaged in similar areas (to identify competitors) and to analyze the inventive activity and patenting and licensing activities of leading companies.
