The best method of ensuring that patents are applied for, obtained, and where possible, licensed for royalties or cross-licensed is to form a patent committee composed of representatives of the various profit centers within the financial institution, with a few representatives knowledgeable in patent matters including licensing, and with a separate budget.
The Russian government loses hundreds of millions of dollars annually because of counterfeit goods, the director of Russia's Patent Committee, Alexander Korchagin, was quoted as telling an international conference.
To ensure that employees give the company the full benefit of their best thinking, the patent program should be designed in a way that encourages them to document and submit new inventions to the patent committee or patent director.
Leadership contributions by Lucent and Bell Labs current and former employees included: First Chair of the IEEE-SA Corporate Advisory Group (2000-2001); leadership on the IEEE-SA Standards Board, including Chair (2000-2001); IEEE-SA Patent Committee Chair (2001); member of the IEEE-SA Board of Governors (2000 to present); and IEEE-SA President Elect (2002) and IEEE-SA President (2003), who did not vote on the award.
According to Robert Blackburn, vice president and head of the patent committee of Chiron Corporation, not all countries are like the United States, Japan and many European countries in having clearly established rules concerning the scope of protection and legal efficacy of patents (NURTON, 1997).
The four-phase plan includes a strategy to guide the portfolio of patents, an internal patent committee representing all functions in the Company, training to empower all employees and a series of rewards for both the Company and the employees who generate the ideas.
