IPRIMA - Intellectual Property Specialists

The preceding section on Infringement searching brought home the point that considerable expense and inconvenience can result if you don’t check a foreign market before entering. Such advice is also relevant for home markets, and also before starting any phase of development, research, or production likely to incur expense.

Most product commercialisation paths are the result of a number of steps, often drawn out over a considerable period and involving considerable investment of resources. How inconvenient if, at the end of this lengthy endeavour, you discover that you have merely reinvented the wheel. In this instance early searching would have highlighted potential problems, such as proceeding down an existing development path to a known destination.

Searching should not be limited to the beginning of a venture. Along most development paths decisions are made about which direction a product or technology will evolve. Any of these decisions may commit further development to an already exploited or prohibited area. A truly informed decision would include feedback from renewed searching.

It is not uncommon for a complex piece of technology to incorporate a number of smaller modular or known pieces of technology. If proprietary components are used then IP infringement issues might be avoided, though care must be taken that generic components acceptable in some countries might run into infringement problems in your proposed overseas markets. Additionally, some companies attempt to redesign (the term is used loosely) such subsystems or components rather than purchase proprietary components. This is problematic if those components are the subject of their own IP protection.

Searching, realistically is an integral part of research and development. Early notification of potential problems can allow choices to be made at a time before it is problematic to alter the project from a committed development path.