Almost every self-respecting industrial company that wants to survive and grow has a patent development and new inventions department. Companies dedicate and allocate a significant proportion of their revenues to the development of patents and new products. Around the world, there is constant competition between manufacturing companies. As technologies improve and advance, manufacturing companies’ patent development moves forward. A company that fails to keep its place at the technological forefront is endangering the basis for its existence. In 1965, the Swedish Company “Facit” began marketing an electrically powered, mechanical, automatic calculating machine with the ability to perform four mathematical processes. The machine weighed seven kilograms and it contained no electronic components whatsoever.
if the patent and inventions development department at Facit had known that in 1966, its competitors would begin distributing and marketing modern, electronic calculators around the world, it is likely that they would not have invested resources on such a large scale, in the development of patents on old technologies.
The patent development departments at Facit’s competitors were smart enough to develop new, advanced patents, which took the market by storm within a very short time. Patent development departments at industrial companies also try to discover information about their competitors and the new patents they have registered. Registering patents is a vital process for industrial companies and details of that registration are kept secret in Patent offices around the world for a period of a year or more. During that time, patent development departments cannot know the details registered or the scale of their protection. Even giant companies can suffer setbacks because of their competitors’ development of patents and their innovative advances, or they can flourish and grow if their departments invent and develop new patents at the right time.
The development of digital cameras almost wiped out the manufacture and sale of optical cameras and its associated film industry. The development of CDs and then DVDs almost entirely replaced the use of magnetic recording tape and vinyl records.
The race to develop new patents seems endless and those taking part must make every possible effort to keep running.