Innovation

About innovation....

Innovation (as well as product and service development) can be divided to (at least but not limited to...) three different categories:

• First category, incremental innovation, refers to improving existing solution to existing problem.
  

• This is typically "better mousetrap" type of innovation *)
  

• Second category, new solution, refers to finding a new solution to existing problem.
  

• An example of this is new video compression technology. The problem of too high bandwidth is typical problem to be solved in video technology.

• Third category is new problem category, if you have new problem most of the solutions for that are new.
• The problem of managing blogs was not really there before there was such a thing than more than one blog in the word. A brief IPR study with keyword BLOG gives you some 250 applications with earliest published round 2003.
  

So if you want to invent something an "easy way" is to look on improving exiting solution. From (technical) contribution (to world) point of view that route does not always create major world shaping patents but typically any improvement is always a good start. If your mouse trap is really better than one that is existing it makes sense to share that info to others via patenting to have even better mouse trap innovated in top of that next year.

On the other hand if you happen to be in an industry that did not exist yesterday solutions to problems in that industry are more likely to be something that might make a difference. Again documenting your solution and description to problem via patenting gives additional opportunities for others to build in top of that innovation leading slowly towards better mouse trap solutions of the new problem.


*) Actually when you search Espcanet patent database with keyword "mousetrap" you will get 335 found applications or patents from start of 1900 i.e. about 3 new better mousetraps per year. There is a peak in inventions in happy 20's with 29 new better mousetrap inventions. If patenting indicates something the 21 century has a big mouse problem since there are actually about 100 applications all ready in the system for year 2000-2008.