How to Invent and Protect Your Invention: A Guide to Patents for Scientists and Engineers

14.5 HOW LAW AND TECHNOLOGY YIELD PATENTS

The patent tree in Figure 14.4 illustrates the relationship between the main components of the patent system. The two principal roots of the patent tree are law and technology, whose confluence yields the trunk (patents), which sprouts numerous branches bearing desirable fruits—that is, wealth, jobs, new knowledge, investment, useful new products, and technology.

Figure 14.4 The patent tree: The patent unites technology and legal principles to produce numerous societal benefits.

Emerging scientists and engineers would do well to recognize that misuse of and failure to develop patents and other intellectual property are now seen as threats to economic and physical security. Learning all that one can learn about the topic of inventing can lead to an outstanding career, as well as an opportunity to improve individual and collective security. One should develop and nurture the process for inventing and successfully apply it to one's own circumstances.

Innovation accelerates our economy and enriches our society, and it will continue to do so. Certainly, innovation has accelerated the “opening up” of nation's borders with Internet access and communications. Quality education will increasingly become available to more of the world population, and more people will have the opportunity to invent. This is a direct result of the innovation of the ...