A tool to support the patent process: The patent decision tree
- Paper number
IAC-05-D1.5.07
- Author
Mr. Philippos Beveratos, European Space Agency (ESA), The Netherlands
- Coauthor
Mr. Marco Freire, European Space Agency (ESA)/ESTEC, The Netherlands
- Coauthor
Dr. Marco Guglielmi, European Space Agency (ESA)/ESTEC, The Netherlands
- Year
2005
- Abstract
Results from studies conducted by the European Space Agency (ESA) indicate that the European Space Companies have a different patenting behaviour, with respect to their competitors in the USA and Japan. In addition, although many contributions can indeed be found in the literature on the various elements considered essential to the patenting process, little advice of practical use to the "practicing space engineer" is available. In this paper, we propose a patenting decision tree that can be used as a tool to assists the decision maker in the patenting process. The tool helps in determining which technological inventions should be patented, by making questions that lead to "YES" or "NO" answers. The decision tree has been developed with the intention to collect in a single context the most relevant legal patentability criteria and express them in a language that is understood in an engineering context. It identifies the technologies that could benefit from patent protection by guiding the user through an analysis of the nature of the technological invention. In the talk each of the questions, and their possible answers, will be fully discussed and justified, including a possible application example. An other element of our study has been the analysis of other alternative forms of Intellectual Property Rights that are suitable for the protection of the industrial property when the use of patents is deemed not appropriate. In the talk this aspect will also be discussed trying to link the output of the patent decision tree to the various possibilities. The talk will be concluded with a summary of the results obtained and with a set of recommendations on the use of the instrument developed.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-05-D1.5.07.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
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