Patents - Our Least Favorite Topic

PRLog (Press Release) - Oct 05, 2009 -
For many companies, developers and project managers patents are something that they do not like to deal with. "We have lawyers and an IP department for that" is a frequent comment. Thinking about patents often does not start until after the development of a product, if at all. Even then the initial impetus usually comes more from the management or the IP department and rarely from the development side.

What is often forgotten is that patent literature constitutes 80-85% of the overall technical knowledge. As a result, each head of a development, or a person otherwise significantly contributing to it, should patent their knowledge. In fact, most of this knowledge can be patented immediately. Often, patents become invalid or they never progress beyond application status. The risk of patent infringement is high. Because of complex developments, the IP department or the attorney will often not know what's inside (e.g., software patents). On the other hand, the developers are rarely aware that what they think of as their own original ideas may actually have been patented by someone else already.

A direct connection between the development and the patent system is not usually given. There is a lack of knowledge of how patent literature is searched and evaluated. The cost of patent search done by commercial providers is usually too high (for the development). Moreover the communication between IP department / lawyers and the developers is often not easy. They each tend to speak different languages. Using "cheap" internet databases is often inefficient; information found is frequently lost once the browser has been closed as it cannot be processed and stored locally (e.g. no bookmark facilities).

The company ethorin (http://www.ethorin.com/en) based in Solingen offers individual IP management solutions specifically for the needs of small firms, developers and technical leaders. Their main product, Ipilion, offers a convenient and cost-effective way for developers to begin to get to grips with the patent system. Ipilion uses the free databases of patent offices and assists both beginners and professionals. Patents can be stored locally, sorted and organized into folders and projects. Then they can be analyzed and evaluated visually.

In addition to patents, one can also manage other documents (e.g. in-place editing). One can set bookmarks to important sections and define tasks. The work becomes transparent to management.

Ipilion is currently available for Windows XP / Vista and Linux, and will soon be available for OsX. Ipilion can be downloaded free of charge for evaluation purposes and non-commercial usage (without the need for registration).

It should be noted that Ipilion will not replace lawyers. Qualified legal statements and the creation and management of patents are not a job for the development team. But the convergence of a development and patent system will optimize development, reduce costs, reduce the risks of patent infringement and enable the application of strong new patents.

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