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A defensive publication, or defensive disclosure, is an
intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, co ...
strategy used to prevent another party from obtaining a
patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...
on a product, apparatus or method for instance. The strategy consists in disclosing an
enabling In psychotherapy and mental health, enabling is the encouragement of some behaviour, especially if said behaviour is either particularly positive or dysfunctional behavior, dysfunctional.
description and/or drawing of the product, apparatus or method so that it enters the
public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no Exclusive exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly Waiver, waived, or may be inapplicable. Because no one holds ...
and becomes
prior art Prior art (also known as state of the art or background art) is a concept in patent law used to determine the patentability of an invention, in particular whether an invention meets the novelty and the inventive step or non-obviousness criteria f ...
. Therefore, the defensive publication of perhaps otherwise
patentable Within the context of a national or multilateral body of law, an invention is patentable if it meets the relevant legal conditions to be granted a patent. By extension, patentability also refers to the substantive conditions that must be met for ...
information may work to defeat the
novelty Novelty (derived from Latin word ''novus'' for "new") is the quality of being new, or following from that, of being striking, original or unusual. Novelty may be the shared experience of a new cultural phenomenon or the subjective perception of an ...
of a subsequent
patent application A patent application is a request pending at a patent office for the grant of a patent for an invention described in the patent specification and a set of one or more claim (patent), claims stated in a formal document, including necessary officia ...
. Unintentional defensive publication by incidental disclosure can render intellectual property as prior art. One reason why companies decide to use defensive publication over patents is cost. In the United States, for example, to obtain a published patent application, one must incur at least filing fee, examination fee, search fees, and early publication fees (currently $530, minimum plus $300 for early publication), and meet the filing requirements for a proper patent application. :"The defensive publication route is especially useful for innovations that do not warrant the high costs incurred in patent applications but to which scientists do want to retain access."S. Adams, V. Henson-Apollonio, "Defensive Publishing: A Strategy of Maintaining Intellectual Property as Public Goods

USAID


See also

* Cloem, a company creating computer-generated variants of patent claims, which may potentially be defensively published * IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin *
Trade secret A trade secret is a form of intellectual property (IP) comprising confidential information that is not generally known or readily ascertainable, derives economic value from its secrecy, and is protected by reasonable efforts to maintain its conf ...
* United States Defensive Publication (existing between April 1968 and May 8, 1985) * United States Statutory Invention Registration (existing until 2013)


References


Further reading

* Johnson, Justin P., ''Defensive Publishing by a Leading Firm'' (October 8, 2004). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=606781 or {{doi, 10.2139/ssrn.606781. * Baker, Scott and Doug Lichtman and Claudio Mezzetti, ''Disclosure And Investment As Strategies In The Patent Race'', University of Chicago Law School. 2000.
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Patent law