Market-driven invention to minimize risk

Business inventing is not only about innovation, it is also about calculating risk. Knowing where to place your bets and how to triage expensive research, product development, patent filings, and litigation are essential.

Especially, both risk and potential return are highest with a new venture, because both the products and the supporting business infrastructure must be developed, at considerable up-front cost in both time and money, before your products can be sold and revenues generated.

In addition, your competitors might design around your own protected ideas.

In classical research laboratories, there often exists a virtual wall between research and marketing. This separation allowed designers to concentrate on implementing the benefits of product improvement.

Market-driven invention determines what the market wants and then finds a unique solution to fill the need. This results in fewer patents sitting on the shelf and fewer new product failures.

Because subtle differences in embodiments of the invention can have a dramatic impact on how the market reacts to it, marketers should also be involved in commenting on drafts of the patent application. Even when negotiating with the patent office, inventors and marketers should be involved to ensure that any claim changes fit with the business needs of the invention.

Market-driven inventing is a way of increasing the chances for success. The farther along the development path that an innovative concept is identified, the more likely it is to be used commercially.