Increasingly, innovation can occur both inside and outside a corporate Research and Development Department. Whether innovation comes from a doctor working the trenches who has found a better way to shape a surgical device or an engineer who has found a better way to manufacture such device, it is necessary to determine whether or not the new device can be sold without infringing another's Intellectual Property - whether it be a patent, copyright or trade dress. It is also important to determine whether it is possible to pursue protection for such intellectual property to discourage competitors from blatantly copying it. John Boger goes through the steps in protecting new inventions and other innovations and during the product development process in this article.
By Victor Cardona