A patent is a right granted for any device, substance, method or process that is new, inventive and useful.
A patent is a legally enforceable right to commercially exploit the invention for the patent’s life.
Once applied for and granted, it gives exclusive rights for an invention to make, use and sell the design for a limited period, typically 20 years. The patent grant excludes others from making, using, or selling the invention and does not start until the actual allocation of a patent.
Patents are handy in business, and they are lodged when an individual or a company believes they have invented something “new, inventive or useful” and ideally lucrative when commercially exploited.
So what would you say to the fact that patents were lodged for oil tankers and mobile drilling platforms that could navigate a melting Artic by the following companies in the 1970s
- Exxon in 1973
- Texaco In 1974
- Chevron in 1974
- Shell in 1983
When to register your patent
The date you first file a patent application for your invention establishes what is known as a priority date. Potential competitors who file an application later for the same design will not be entitled to patent it due to your earlier priority date.
So what were these oil companies up to in the mid-1970s?
Protecting their technologies to get oil out of the Arctic when the ice was melting. Did they know that climate change was a potential risk 50 years ago, and they hedged as all smart businesses should do?
Just in case they needed to be the first with a stable platform to drill for oil on unstable ice, they invented and patented their own platforms.
No matter if they never built them. They were prepared.
It is a shame that the rest of us are less prescient.
Worried about the future, what will happen to our food, environment, and safety? Get some accurate information and ideas at sustainability FED.
Hero image from photo by Emmaus Studio on Unsplash
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