Engineering Research Methodology by Dipankar Deb & Rajeeb Dey & Valentina E. Balas

Author:Dipankar Deb & Rajeeb Dey & Valentina E. Balas
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789811329470
Publisher: Springer Singapore

6.3 Patent or Technical Paper?—The Choice

Some companies encourage publication, while others discourage the same in journals so as to categorically ensure leak of proprietary content. However, all established organizations have a robust review policy on publication requests of the employees. The review of manuscripts for possible publication should include the writer’s immediate supervisor, and the legal department to ensure maintenance of intellectual property. However, it is still possible that company secrets could get divulged in the oral presentation of a paper, and so many companies are ambivalent about publications and rightfully so. There may be many other reasons specific to individual organizations which may dissuade a researcher my choosing to go ahead with a journal paper submission, and so an alternative like patent is required to be explored. However, as will be clear shortly, the inability to publish is not the only reason to file a patent!

A research paper is just that, a publication. It does not give you any rights, except bragging rights. A research paper may or may not be presenting an invention or something new. For example, it can be a tutorial paper or a case study analysis, etc. It may or may not be applicable to anything considered “useful”.

A patent is supposed to represent something novel, useful, and nonobvious. A patent also bestows the right to stop someone from making a product that infringes upon the patent claims. Unlike a research article, the drafting of the patent is usually done by a lawyer through active involvement of the inventor but is not usually done directly by the inventor. Patents are accorded the highest importance by organizations who know their value because after all, intellectual property is the often the most valuable asset. There are many companies actively seeking to and copy a product, and under such circumstances, if one researcher has a compelling idea (and product), the only practical way to protect it, in most cases, is through a patent.

A technical paper (a document in an archival journal), or a patent presents different levels of detail, and the effectiveness in the two forms in describing the status of the project, the conclusions, and recommendations, is different. An invention is patentable only on satisfying three main aspects:It must be new: One can check if something is new through a search of previous patents via the various patent databases.

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