Invention, Innovation, Design Thinking, New Product Development which
we are always thinking about when creating future use, are the
cornerstone of breakthroughs, but protecting them effectively is rapidly
diminishing due to the digital hurdles that now ensure that the fruits
of such labor are immediately perishable and/or easily copied and/or
outright stolen.
Welcome to the world of Generative Design fueled by Ai. But what can innovators do?
Patents and from the most recent issue of the famed Nature Magazine
examine the most effective ways to protect intellectual property (IP)
rights, and especially important in the world of lab-based research and
development only become valuable when the cost of litigation is baked
into every R&D effort by a patent and trademark protection model
that incentivizes individuals and companies to invest said efforts
upfront. With research and development the idea is that the product is
the power, but by granting R&D and Innovation efforts the capability
and resources ( read, cash, to protect said efforts ) only then do
exclusive rights to inventions, IP, etc., allow firms to recoup efforts
and reap the benefits when, in today's design and advanced engineering
world, a copy will exist the moment a product is made available for use
or purchase, and sometimes even before if it is mentioned in any way in
the outside world.
At the heart of many breakthrough innovations, and fueled by deign
and design thinking, it is he problem-solving methodology itself that
becomes the crucible to potential future human needs and experience
driving ROI. Design thinking, a fully multidisciplinary approach, blends
creativity, technical engineering capabilities, and user-centricity to
create solutions that are not only functional but also aesthetically
pleasing and emotionally resonant which although everyone in today's
world is well aware of, this also begs the question of how IP is
leveraged for the sustainability of said efforts. This approach is
especially effective in industries such as fashion, lifestyle ( home,
family, etc., ) plus in automotive, and technology, where design drives
shaping consumer preferences and ultimately market demand.
With breakthroughs not limited to design departments, design thinking
practitioners and aesthetics focused team, along with user experience
specialists who created the never ending bridges from expected behavior
to future forward efforts, it ends up that design thinking / product
capability quickly becomes the driver for advanced engineering thus the
key component of new product development - a combination of ( in it's
most powerful form ) where advanced R&D efforts meet and exceed
performance and safety standards push the boundaries of what is not even
known yet to exist. It is here that the artist's mentality begins to
play an even larger part in the over all success of such efforts.
Design and innovation efforts speculating about future use is easily
created with gathering around a table and giving themselves the creative
oxygen and open space to explore the questions of tomorrow, designers
with a keen capability to see what is available and where the direction
is that a firm is going, means bridges between the present and the
future are created. Imagining with hands, building to think, and
blending strategic hunches with wild cognitive leaps, lab based efforts
based on play and free association with a core sustainability component
allow practitioners to slip past the rational mind and invite all the
senses and capabilities of firms to drive breakthroughs. This practice
of intentional play helps liberate thinking
and allows what is initially not possible, to, be possible when
intellectual property and functional production economics balanced with
legitimate market demand capabilities are taken into consideration.
But what happens when these lab based R&D breakthroughs are
realized as functionally usable or when forward deign efforts are pushed
out to a broader audience? Can they be protected from being copied or
stolen? In today's world, not often without substantial further
investment. With the advent of patenting and more importantly patent
& trademark litigation, by granting the inventors/creators/firms of
effort, exclusive rights to prevent others from making, using, selling,
or importing the invention for a limited period of time it's often that
without litigation, there is no protection even when inventors and
creators ( disclose the efforts to the public, allowing others to learn
how things were done ) only increases the chance of further development,
thus further patents, and so on and so on.
With the full on overpowering efforts of Ai, and more importantly
generative Ai, the capability to protect IP has taken a turn that no
litigation could ever keep up with and those owning inventions, patents,
trademarks, copyright, etc,. even employees in large firms, start-ups,
commercial R&D institutes, and universities ( typically protected in
many ways of the ownership of IP developed ) may end up in the future
automatically assigning IP to their employer, who, listed as applicant
or assignee in legal documents, today, cannot even act quickly enough in
a mode where the minute something is created and sold, the next minute
it is re-morphed into another format and sold, etc., etc., etc., thus
the disputes, previously sources of legal and financial headaches now
may not even be executed on, for, as soon as one is dealt with, 100's
more issues could be in the pipeline.
Despite the potential challenges, intellectual property protection,
generative artificial intelligence, and incredibly expensive IP
litigation, even when ultimately successful, requires a blend of forward
thinking capability focused on firm sustainability for firms and
financially strong groups to push beyond the limits of the onslaught of the Ai Generative Design zeitgeist
that we are all facing now and, as pertaining to what Steve Jobs once
said, that "Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower."
yet only in terms of ROI. The most significant discoveries come from the
creativity that comes from playing and experimenting and the freedom to
imagine and explore, and embrace the wisdom of that labs based R&D
efforts deliver to liberate roadblocks for breakthroughs that may change
the world when woven carefully with entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial laser focus.
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