Archives for May 2014
The Inventor’s Dilemma
By P. Kandiah
Inventors or researchers who have invented a potentially commercially useful product or process are often faced with a dilemma as to whether to:
- Seek patent rights for the invention, or
- Keep the details of the invention confidential (or as a trade secret), or
- Publish the details of the invention and depend on copyright protection afforded by the Copyright Act. The publication could be in a peer reviewed journal, or as a paper presented at a conference proceeding.
Which path to take? That’s the dilemma. Let’s look at the various options available and the implications of each path to the inventor/ researcher.