The US patent system was created in 1970 under President George Washington. A patent grants the inventor exclusive rights on the invention for a fixed time period (20 years in North America). The patent owner retains the right to exclude others from making, selling, using or importing the invention. The invention is disclosed to the public.
The often stated economic rationale for filing a patent is to protect the investment required that went into creating the technology in the first place. For example the pharmaceutical industry spends billions in R&D and the patents offer the period of exclusivity to protect their investment. The patent is disclosed publicly and others can use the patent either by licensing it or waiting for the patent to expire. Patents can be very expensive to file and maintain and they become even more expensive over time.
Other companies take a different strategy. The invention is a trade secret. Trade secrets are basically information not generally known and as long as you don’t tell anyone, the information will remain that way. Many companies rely on secrets (eg the formula to Coca Cola).
The problem with the trade secret is that someone else can independently re-discover the idea (lawfully) and patent it. In fact anyone (i.e. your competitor) can legally do that by reverse engineering your product. If they successfully obtain a patent then they could prevent you (the creator of the idea) from using it! So there are risks to keeping a secret. If you suspect that the idea will eventually be discovered then you should probably file a patent or if you don’t want to see a patent then publish it on Wikinvents!
Wikinvents is a free open collective of original inventions that can be used by anyone. Once your idea is published and timestamped, it cannot be patented by anyone else. The motivations include:
- You have original ideas that you will never want to commercialize but hope someone will just to improve every day life.
- Some of the best ideas come from end users. End users have a unique perspective, often surpassing that of the original developers, as to product improvements or new directions.
- Work on inventions that benefit everyone. Massive collaboration on ideas and inventions (two (millions of) heads better than one
- Prevent others from patenting your invention
- Post interesting ideas problems that should be worked on
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