Identifying Patentable Inventions

• Author: Donald S. Rimai
• Profession: Recently retired from Eastman Kodak where he worked as a researcher and intellectual property manager in digital printing and adhesion science
• Pages: 47-61

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Introduction

Over the years, I have oen met with teams of scientists, engineers, and

technicians who have been building the technological basis for an inno-

vative product. ey are creative, hard-working, and incredibly intelli-

gent and capable. eir solutions to the problems that have prevented the

previous commercialization of the perceived product are innovative and

imaginative and are the result of long hours spent on R&D. Yet, more times

than not, they have not submitted any invention disclosures. When asked

about this, they respond that they have not invented anything. Why do

they have this disconnect between their making technological advances

and recognizing inventions? On other occasions they submit invention

disclosures prematurely or even when they do not have inventions. Why

are such highly skilled and creative people disconnected from patentabil-

ity? In order to understand the origins of this disconnect, let us consider

several situations.

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Identifying Patentable

Inventions