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Defensive publications
The main aim of a defensive publication is to put an invention in the public domain and thus establish a prior art reference. In most countries, a patent cannot be granted for an invention that has already been published or for an invention that is obvious in light of relevant prior art. One of the most common and straightforward reasons for publishing a defensive disclosure is therefore to create prior art describing an invention to prevent others from later obtaining a patent on the same or a closely related invention.
Different strategies have been devised to optimize the management of intellectual property within a company through defensive publications. Many companies decide to publish inventions that are not worth the expense of pursuing patent protection when they want to ensure they can continue using the technology and prevent others from obtaining a patent on the same invention. Publishing an invention does not grant any monopoly, but it can prevent another company from later patenting the same invention.
Other companies choose to publish inventions immediately after filing a patent application on them to avoid having to fight an interfering application filed by a third party for the same invention.
Until recently, there was no really suitable channel for rapidly publishing inventions cost-effectively and with minimal administrative constraints.
Traditional technical papers published in a journal often entail long delays and the risk of rejection or amendment by reviewers. Internet publications are easier to achieve, but it may be difficult, or even impossible, to prove later which information was published and on exactly what date.
We have recognized those drawbacks and now offer the option to publish documents with extensions .doc, .pdf, or .txt on our site, for example. The records are time-stamped, signed, and notarized to ensure that document integrity and publication date can be verified in the future, should the need arise. They are furthermore stored in a database directly available to examiners of the European Patent Office, thereby maximizing the likelihood that those documents will be cited in search reports for subsequently filed patent applications of third parties.
