Inside the Patent Factory: The Essential Reference for Effective and Efficient Management of Patent Creation [Hardcover]

Mr. O'Connell sees the production of patents in terms of a factory analogy, with everything that this implies and entails - raw materials (inventions) going in one end and product (patents) coming out the other, factory machinery and operatives, quality control procedures, production targets, cost controls and use of toll manufacturing (subcontracting parts (or even all) of the process to external suppliers and specialised services), and the management and coordination of all of the above. Mr. O'Connell is not specific as to the nature of this Patent Factory, not, I believe, because he won't, but simply because he can't and he is sensible not to try. He knows that one size won't fit all - what works for an international pharma or telecommunications giant with a huge portfolio won't necessarily work for a small local engineering firm with a small portfolio. So he presents a large palette of ideas, from which anyone interested can mix'n'match his or her own patents factory according to needs/demands.

Although I find the factory analogy quite a good one overall, I think it has several shortcomings, namely in the matters of quality of raw materials and production targets. How does one maintain quality in "patentable inventions"? More importantly, how does one ensure a constant flow of such inventions? Nobody I know has yet managed to create to order - unless there were creative people there in the first place.

However, the overriding idea of the Patent Factory, be it a one (wo)man-band or a large, self-contained in-house department, is one of control. There must be someone, be it an individual or a department, with a clear strategy, overseeing the factory, its input, its output, its quality control, its outsourcing, its budget, its relations with other parts of the company and with senior management. To me, the really important message of this book is that there has to be some sort of in-house function, even if only a coordinator. This Factory should also set down standards for external attorneys, not of course in patent professional terms as to how an invention should be drafted, claimed and prosecuted, but in strategic terms by imparting the Company strategic vision to the attorneys, and making them an integral part of its achievement.

Anyone seeking the answers to all of his or her patent problems will not find them in this book. But one will be confronted with the facts that one needs to have a coherent patent policy, strategies for the efficient obtaining and maintaining IPR and the extraction of maximum benefit therefrom, and some way of implementing it all with the maximum possible efficiency, including cost control. These concepts alone will be news to many smaller companies. There are also very clear chapters on patent procedures, refreshingly free of patent jargon.

One of the problems I have with the book is the occasional (and perhaps unconscious) drifting towards the idea that patents are ends in themselves, rather than tools for extracting maximum commercial advantage. I think this is because Mr. O'Connell seems to have a tendency to believe that good material will inevitably end up as good, strong "quality" patents, as he calls them. This, with respect, completely ignores the recent catastrophic decline in standards of patent examination in the USPTO in particular. In addition, there is some repetition.

This is an invaluable book for the small organisation that has some patents, but which wants to organise and control its patent affairs a bit better - the book is a positive mine of useful ideas. It is also useful for the private practitioner, in that it puts him or her in the position of the client, seeing things from the client's point of view, and that can only be a good thing.

This book is one of the few books which identifies and discusses how you should manage patents within an innovative company. The author bases the book on his experience at Nokia, but the ideas that he discusses are also applicable to much smaller companies with much more modest patent portfolios.

If you are looking for a book which gives you all of the answers on how you should manage patents, then this is not the book for you. The real strength of this book is not that it prescribes rigid processes, but that it identifies the questions that you should be asking about the way in which you manage patents. For example, it encourages benchmarking with competitors to allow you to understand the amount of technical innovation coming out of your business compared with your competitors, and to understand how good your business is at turning ideas into patents.

Other areas it covers are reasons to patent inventions, metrics, and cost management.

I would recommend this book to anyone who manages the patent process within a company who really wants to devise the best way for their company to manage patents. This book offers a starting point to the process by forcing you to ask the right questions. As I said above, it doesn't give you any answers, but is all the more powerful for that.

Donal O'Connell's book is for those interested in developing a system for patenting products to protect their intellectual property rights (IPR). Rather than treating each patent as a new creation, O'Connell suggests that you lay out your tools and procedures to make the most of your talent - just as you would for manufacturing your products. The book is U.K.-centric, but it usefully analyzes the differences in patent law between Europe, the United States and Asia. O'Connell frankly insists that patents are not the universal answer for protecting intellectual property. Instituting a "Patent Creation Factory" for just one or two patents, he explains, is not sensible. However, if your firm depends on continuous product innovation, getAbstract says this awkwardly written but useful guide is for you. O'Connell outlines an efficient process for creating new products, tracking their path through the patenting process and protecting your patents once you receive them.