Season 1, Episode 2: An Example of a Patent "Win": P&G's Successful Protection Strategy for the Swiffer Wet Jet System

02/18/20 • 34 min

For people who have focused patent protection on "an invention" (and this is just about everyone), framing of coverage in terms of the "customer solution" may seem like an abstract concept. Importantly, however, no problem is every new, it's just new to you. In this episode, listeners are shown how Procter & Gamble's successful patenting strategy effectively kept competition in its breakthrough (for that time) Swiffer Wet Jet(R) mopping system at bay for many years. This real-life and likely familiar example will help innovators, entrepreneurs, and business leaders who seek to do a better job in generating value from their patenting efforts by ensuring that they can obtain patent protection that does not merely protect the product that they are selling to their customers, but also the value that the customer is being provided.

Previous Episode

Season 1, Episode 1: What Does it Mean to Win with Patents and IP?

In Episode 1 of Season 1 of Winning with Patents and (IP), we set out a new framework for the process of generating patents and other forms of intellectual property that are aligned with the desired business outcomes of your company. By "flipping the script" to put the focus on why your business needs IP prior to moving forward with the IP generation process, it is much more likely that any patents that you obtain will actually matter. Notably, it is likely that 5% or fewer of patents actually encompass strategically relevant protection; it follows that there is a whole lot of room for improvement. This episode is intended to help listeners gain awareness--perhaps for the first time--that patents and intellectual property are issues that must be managed first as a business issue, and only when the business relevance is determined, does it make sense for an entrepreneur or innovator to spend the money with an IP professional.

Next Episode

Season 1, Episode 3: What Should You Patent? An Introduction to Creating Innovation Value Using Patent Strategy

The subject matter of a patent application is no doubt the most important question after an innovator, entrepreneur, or business leader decides that they need to move forward with obtaining a patent in order to generate their desired business outcome. However, very little time is spent on deciding what the patent application should, in fact, cover in order make it likely to achieve this outcome. As will be discussed in this episode, for many companies, the last thing that they should work to protect is "an invention," at least because the customer does not buy an invention, she buys a solution. This episode provides an illustration of how a company failed to prevent competition in its breakthrough innovation because it protected, albeit broadly, the product that it created after a long product development process--that is, "an invention." Listeners are also introduced to the concept of protecting the value provided to the customer from a product or technology using solution-directed patenting strategy.