Patents, the wealth of 21st century

HYDERABAD: When your competitor can produce as much as you can, manufacture as much as you can, get as much real-time information as you can, knows as much as you know, has as much of ubiquitous decision enabling knowledge as you have, then how can you get competitive advantage?

"Innovate more and quickly," was the reply of COO of Creax Information Technologies Mathieu Mottrie. "In a globalized world there is no other alternative. Technology enables everybody to be on a level playing field," he added.



Headquartered in Belgium with its Indian arm in Bangalore, Creax is a patent and TRIZ based research organization providing consultancy, training and product development services for diverse global organizations.

Speaking at the CII-IPR Week in Hyderabad, Mottrie said, "Intellectual property is the powerful engine for economic growth in the 21st century. There is a need for effective and efficient IP systems as these will provide foundation for wealth creation in all the nations."



In a nutshell, according to Mottrie, in the knowledge society patents are the wealth and there is a systematic way to innovate and patent.

"In 1946 a patent officer by the name Altschuller in Russian Navy discovered patterns in patents and went on to analyze two-and-a-half million patents in the following decades and identified what makes a successful patent. By 1985 TRIZ — inventive problem solving was formulated," informed Mottrie. He elaborated that the systematic innovation methodology arrives at value through a change in functionality, evolution trends or handling of contradictions and conflicts, which results in patentable inventions. "The TRIZ parameters help evaluate the patents vis-à-vis synergy with the existing portfolio, competitors’ portfolio, patent vitality along with the macro level evaluation of the patent," he added.

TRIZ = Teoriya Resheniya Izobreatatelskikh Zadatach (in Russian)

(CNS)