(354e) Patterns of Invention to Broaden Intellectual Property

The value of intellectual property is frequently determined by the valid breadth of its claims. Most inventors and patent attorneys make a significant effort to increase coverage through their knowledge of other potential applications. However, this is frequently limited by the inventor's and attorney's knowledge of parallel universes of technology, much of which may be outside their experience base.

TRIZ (Russian acronym for "Theory of Solving Inventive Problems") is a problem solving methodology and algorithm that has been developed through the study of the global patent literature and the recognition and codification of the limited number of inventive principles that are constantly reused in the inventive process. Inventions in the area of food processing, chemical processing, mining, materials handling, etc., when generalized, show the same basic inventive principles being used. These studies have also shown there are a limited number of these principles that are constantly reused across numerous areas of science and technology. In its problem solving role, TRIZ is used to shorten the problem solving cycle by taking advantage of the inventive principles used in parallel universes to solve problems previously thought unsolvable.

When considering intellectual property, we can use this analogical process in reverse. TRIZ provides a systematic way of generalizing inventions and providing a more thorough approach to complete coverage, circumvention of existing intellectual property, and providing more outlets for licensing income

This talk will overview the process and show its applicability in both of these processes.