Not to forget…
When developing a new product, it is obvious to file for Intellectual Property (IP) protection. When developing an innovative service “around” an existing product, we do not always think about protecting it.
We were fortunate to have a forward thinking innovator in our Pharma IT organization, who did file patents for his innovative service ideas. An example:
- In several countries, when physicians recommend adult vaccines, the patient first needs to fill the prescription in the pharmacy and then go back to the physician to get the injection. Many patients never come back, because they do not want to waste their time in the waiting room again. This is a major barrier for access to life saving vaccines.
- The innovative idea was to provide doctors with vaccine-specific refrigerator units. These refrigerators would ensure the vaccine is available when the recommendation is made, without creating additional administration or costs for the physician. These units would be placed free of charge, would be automatically refilled by distributers when wireless monitoring indicates low inventory and would only charge physicians when they take out a vaccine (which they immediately charge back to the patient). The unit also would have a back up generator, in case of electricity outages, so the inventory would not be lost due to cold chain disruption.
- The IT innovator immediately patented the idea. He then experimented with a MVP in 2 Asian countries. The concept worked!
- As the Pharma company was interested in the access value, but decided this solution was too far removed from their core vaccine marketing capabilities, the IP was licensed to another company to market this refrigerator. This concept thus created value for the Parma company in 2 ways: increased access to their vaccines and royalties from the other company on the IP.
I observed several innovation related learnings. Corporate IP lawyers are very experienced in patenting new medicines, less so in patenting new services, so they need to learn this too. Lawyers speak a very different language than marketers, therefor it’s important to facilitate “translation”. Patenting an innovation can be a complex process, so it’s critical to be sensitive not to overburden, frustrate and discourage the innovator.
As Kalyan Kankanala said:
“A patent a day keeps the competitor away.”
So, as Innovation Leader, I made sure to connect innovators in the company as soon as possible with a service-innovation interested corporate IP lawyer, to evaluate protecting their innovation. And if there was an initial positive advice, I helped identify the simplest way to proceed.
More about this: Why IP Protection is Important for Every Start-up and Four Types of IP Protection for Businesses
Please share your insights below!
More of my blogs on innovation: Wim Vandenhouweele