Register for our Patent-Searching Workshop Series
25 February 2022 | Read time: 4 minutes
Are you making the most of patent literature? If you're doing cutting-edge research and are not searching for patents to investigate the work taking place outside of academic journals in your area, then you're risking missing a wealth of critical information.
The Science for Technological Innovation National Science Challenge or SfTI looks to support researchers to maximise the impact their research will have for Aotearoa. SfTI's Capacity Development Programme does this by ensuring researchers have access to the diverse skills needed to take research to the next level. This includes understanding intellectual property (IP) and patents and after a successful Patent-Searching Workshop Series last year, SfTI will again team up with KiwiNet to offer this course in March 2022.
This workshop series is open to all SfTI researchers, plus researchers from any New Zealand University or research organisation. The series is free and will be delivered in three one-hour online interactive workshops on March 9, 16 and 23rd. Find out more and register online here.
SfTI researchers who took part in the first Patent-Searching Workshop Series last year, felt the course highlighted how important this was to their work and gave them the tools to apply it to their own research focus:
“A great overview of patent processes and searching. Perhaps even more importantly, I learned a lot about the broader picture around how Intellectual Property in research projects could or should be handled and how this can support commercialisation.” Said the researcher.
What is a patent?
A patent is essentially a deal between the State and an inventor. The inventor publishes the full details of their invention in return for having protection over the rights to be the only party to make, use or sell that invention for a period of time in a country or region.
How will a Patent-Searching Workshop support researchers in their work?
The Patent-Searching Workshop will be facilitated by Tim Stirrup, a Registered NZ and Australian Patent Attorney. Tim explains how it's important to know how to find out what is happening in patent literature in order to focus research efforts:
“We know that there is a vast amount of technical information that exists in patents that does not exist in journal articles. Many of the world’s biggest innovators don’t publish in journals, so being able to access this info avoids wasted research effort and informs next steps,” said Tim Stirrup (Ph.D.).
“Not only can you find out about cutting edge work in your area, you may otherwise miss, you’ll gain valuable technical knowledge and see what your potential competitors are up to,” he said.
How can Patent-Searching inform commercialisation?
SfTI is committed to equipping our research community with commercialisation know-how that allows them to find a market and future impact for their breakthrough science. SfTI’s Commercialisation Manager, Enrico Tronchin, stresses the importance of accessing patent literature for research success.
“Understanding the market landscape, competitors and collaborators for your invention early on is really useful when you plot your commercialisation path.” he said.
“If you find that your work encroaches on existing patents, you may be able to pivot your research early to avoid this. So whether you are assessing the novelty of your ideas or trying to find collaborators, you need to access this information, ”said Enrico.
Find out more about the commercialisation support SfTI offers.