The Carrot And The Stick

This article was first published in the Physics World Focus on Biomedical Physics in 2018

A common view of patents is that they are only useful if someone tries to copy your research and product. At that point, so the thinking goes, you need to spend copious amounts of money to enforce your patent and stop them. However, in biomedical physics, as in other fields, patents are not merely a last line of defence against unscrupulous competitors. They are also a deterrent. A timely and well-constructed patent can head off competition right from the start, as it is common (and advisable) for companies to check patent records before launching a product to see if they will be free to market it without infringing other parties' intellectual-property rights.