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A defensive publication is a public disclosure of details of an invention that is designed to prevent others from patenting ideas that a business may want to use in the future.Prior ArtPrior art is a term for all information that has been disclosed to the public in the past. Generally speaking, it is not possible to patent inventions that exist in prior art. Ideas represented in prior art may also be used to judge whether an invention fits patent criteria for inventive step and non-obviousness.
Patents vs Defensive PublicationPatents are expensive to prepare and involve application fees. Defensive publication is used to defend secondary inventions that a firm may want to use but that are not viewed as valuable enough for a patent. Trade Secrets vs Defensive PublicationFirms may be motivated to publish certain details of trade secrets in order to prevent patents. This can occur when a firm feels a secret will be difficult to keep. Firms may frame the defensive publication to disclose just enough information to prevent obstructive patents without disclosing key aspects of trade secrets.
Regular Defensive PublicationsIn some cases, large innovative firms publish regular technical bulletins or blogs that can be considered defensive publications. Regularly publishing ideas that are going into your products can be effective in preventing future patent issues. Naturally, intellectual property that's relevant to competitive advantage may be retained as trade secrets or patented. ExampleA small bicycle manufacturer plans a new shape of pedal for their future products that may have advantages for cycling. They decide it is impossible to retain as a trade secret and isn't worth patenting. They publish a diagram and description of the pedal in a public blog post to prevent a competitor from patenting the idea.
Innovation
This is the complete list of articles we have written about innovation.
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A list of common innovation principles.
An overview of fail often innovation.
How to measure innovation including early stage, late stage and overall program metrics.
The basic types of pilot used in business, science and entertainment.
A definition of lead user with examples.
A definition of moment of truth with a few examples.
A definition of user innovation with examples.
The common types of proof of concept.
The common types of commercialisation.
The common types of innovation objectives with examples.
An overview of the risk management process.
An overview of cascading failure and resilience.
An overview of business as usual.
A list of techniques for reducing risk.
The difference between risk mitigation and risk reduction.
A list of common risk controls.
A definition of risk value with example calculation.
The common types of risk impact.
A definition of risk communication with examples.
Overview of the steps in a risk management process.
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