Patents in engineering

Patent protection is essential for profit-conscious companies and when the expense of large research programmes has to be recovered. The only alternative is jealous guarding of the secret, although this is really only possible for such things as formulas. A public-spirited inventor can make his knowledge freely available; notable examples of this exist in the medical field, although such behaviour must be regarded as untypical in view of the very high research costs in the field. This article explains the various types of legal protection available, how to get them and how to use them