Patents and Strategic Inventing: The Corporate Inventor's Guide to Creating Sustainable Competitive Advantage

CHAPTER 18THE CART OR THE HORSE? AN INTRODUCTION TO STRATEGIC INVENTING

So far we’ve been discussing patent strategies involving multiple inventions and the implications of these patent portfolios. The significance of the competitive advantage you create will depend on the competitive landscapes, your project’s patent filings, your company’s intellectual property (IP) strategy, and needs for life-cycle management. However, building up these portfolios and developing the individual inventions that make up your strategic position can be difficult—particularly if you’re limited to the inventions that just happen to occur within your research program. Another approach is to focus on the needs of the strategy, and then deliberately create inventions ...