איך להעלות את ערך החברה בעזרת פטנטים? / ד"ר שמואל אור

Meetings for managers
These two, three-hour meetings are optional.
Meeting 1. Preparation – Together, we will try to come up with good problems for the inventors, and areas to consider. These problems, if solved, will yield significant value to the company.
Meeting 2. Summary – Comes after the inventors have done their work. The ideas are presented and evaluated. Dr. Ur recommends which ones are worthy for the company to pursue.

Course outline*
Intended for managers and inventors.
Patents – What are they, differences between inventors and owners, the importance of different patent parts, provisional patent applications, PCT applications, continuations, and continuations in part. How to work with (or without) a patent attorney, understanding patent infringement, patent examples, and common mistakes to avoid.
Patent ethics and aesthetics, plus pros and cons of the patent system.
Value to gain from patents – Ways to make money from ideas, how to sell them and when to patent them. How patents can be useful to companies, and how to generate patents specifically to increase the value of companies. Choosing which route to market depends on the idea characteristics. What to do with ideas in academic settings. How patents can contribute to your career and your bank account.
Searching and inventing – How to proceed from problem to solution and why good problems are so valuable. How to find an area to invent in, what if an idea is not new, and how to expand ideas.
*Dr. Ur tailors the examples and brainstorming ideas used in the course to the company.

Full day of exercises for inventors
Participants work in groups and undergo a process to create patentable ideas. They then enhance and evaluate other groups’ ideas. The exercises demonstrate the importance of communicating the ideas, improving them, and discarding them.
Exercise 1. Inventing – Each group creates and develops a patentable idea using brainstorming techniques. The domain can be based on a client request. Discuss its value, how to make money out of it, and the preferred route to market. One person moves from each original group to another group for Exercise 2.
Exercise 2. Enhancing – Each newcomer explains the inventing group’s idea. The enhancing group formulates refinements and improvements, examining the idea’s value and route to market. Each enhancing group sends a summary to another group, without discussion.
Exercise 3. Evaluating – Understand the enhancing group’s idea and try to improve it, examining the value and route to market. Decide if the group would buy it.
Summary – All together, each evaluating group explains the idea they evaluated, its value, and merits. Inventing and enhancing groups comment on any ideas that the evaluation group did not understand. Each inventing group explains the origin of the idea. Dr. Ur reviews the ideas, the creation process, and the group collaboration.

Brainstorming sessions for inventors
There are two sessions for brainstorming inventions. The participants are split into groups of 3-4 people to work together on developing ideas. Each session results in one idea for each member to write up. Dr. Ur reviews all the written inventions prior to the next session.