POLICIES OF PROMOTING INVENTIVENESS Opening speech at the
International Seminar On Innovation Organized by:
It is an honor for IFIA, which represents inventors world-wide, to have been asked by the organizers of this seminar to deliver the opening speech of our two-day meeting. It is also a challenge to have been asked to speak on Policies of Promoting inventiveness and Technological Innovation and to limit my talk to 20 minutes. From the outset, I must say that there is no fixed formula for such policies. Each country must do its home work, and analyze its own unique situation, particularly through a series of specific surveys - as correctly suggested by the authors of "Inventiva Project", the organizers of this seminar, and through the various other contributions to this meeting. You will therefore agree that it
is very difficult for me who is visiting your country for the first time to recommend any
specific initiative for Brazil. All I can honestly do is to share with you some thoughts
based on my 25 years experience with the world of inventors and inventions at the
international level, and in particularly from the perspective of developing countries. I. Some basic conditions for any successful invention policy The importance of inventors, of the inventor, should be officially acknowledged. Let me quote here a joint declaration signed over 10 years ago, in 1986, by the then President of IFIA and the Director General of WIPO, the World Intellectual Property Organization: "We strongly emphasize the world-wide importance of the creative work of the inventor, and we request governmental authorities to give serious consideration to the question of increasing their support to inventor activities. Funds spent in such a way should be considered as an investment for the benefit of society." Between inventors and governmental patent offices there should be a sort of "happy marriage of necessity". Inventors need patent offices to be able to have their inventions protected. On the other hand, patent offices would not exist without inventors. Personally, my opinion is that a patent office exists first and foremost for its "clients", in other words for the inventors and the industry mainly, be they nationals or foreigners. However, particular attention should be given by the patent office to local inventors and small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs), as well as to local research institutes. But this relation between the government patent office and the inventor should be one of give and take. Inventors should not lament or spend their time criticizing their authorities - this will lead to unnecessary friction, and might even be counter-productive. Last but not least. Never forget
that an invention policy has to be a long-term policy if it is to be successful. It is not
by chance that such countries as the USA, Japan, Germany or Finland, for example, have
been so successful in the field. There is no miracle : a climate for inventiveness was
systematically created in these countries. Otherwise ideas may dry up. II. It is essential to challenge certain psychological barriers Inventors in all countries face a psychological difficulty related to their image in the society. They live in a paradox. On one hand, they are proudly considered as the symbol of the genius and creativity of the nation. And on the other hand, being non-conformists, they are seen as marginal by this very society. Most people still today see the inventor as an absent-minded person, an eccentric or even as a crackpot! What can be done to change this distorted image? Mainly by correctly informing public opinion. There is indeed a lot to say about famous or less famous inventors around the world - in your own country, to start with. There is a lot to tell about their inventions, innovations and discoveries. Use these stories in order to correct the wrong image about the inventor! Unfortunately, in most developing countries, inventors still have another psychological difficulty. "Only foreign products are good"! they say. "Only foreign ideas are true ideas"! "Only foreign inventors are real inventors". In one word, local inventions are underestimated, a fact that tends to inhibit all personal efforts of creation. This psychological problem is indeed a severe one, like all psychological problems. But even though this inferiority complex is hard to cure, developing countries should challenge it, thus facing it and including it in all policies promoting local inventive activity. Public recognition is essential
to the inventor. That is why it is so important that countries pay tribute to their fellow
inventors, using for that purpose all possible means. When you publicize an inventor and
his work, you not only inform the public, you give the inventor self-confidence and a
sense of pride. Further, you encourage all those men and women of ideas, who then have the
feeling that their creation might also be recognized one day. III. The independent inventor This group of inventors have the qualifications which are necessary for creative work, but they often need to be correctly oriented in all the many other steps of the invention and innovation process. They therefore badly need proper advice and training. This can be done by different government administrations but also by inventors' associations, an important reason why these associations need to be supported morally and materially by the government. Another major problem which inventors as well as small industry face is the cost involved in the filing of a patent application and the annual fees. Two policies have been adopted: either to reduce the fees for this category of patent applicants, or to adopt a legal instrument distinct from the patent law to provide financial assistance to national inventors and particularly to independent inventors and SMEs. Special laws or regulations give a wide range of technical, financial and legal assistance to inventors in the country, so as to promote and encourage local inventions and their manufacture. The greatest difficulty
inventors face is to commercialize their invention. By providing a preliminary analysis of
the marketability of a new product idea, an inventor will already be able to make informed
development decisions. On their side, inventors must understand that only technological
innovations that have a serious chance to create economic benefits may find financial
support. IV. Industry The management must be convinced that inventions and innovations within the firm are one of the elements of its success, that without ideas emerging from the brains of its employees the enterprise could not stand against local and global competition. On the other hand, the employee who invents must feel that his invention, his achievement, is recognized by the management. It will stimulate him, and encourage other employees to invent. Easy to say. In all countries, whether developed or developing, difficulties appear and solutions are sought. The difficulty with most managers is that they want to make quick money, and with no or little risk, while introducing an invention in the firm is a costly long-term policy. For the entrepreneurs to regain some sense of adventure, two main incentives have been thought of. One is of course the legal protection of the invention by a patent. The other is the financial incentive introduced in many countries to encourage local innovation activities. In both cases, governments should give more publicity to all such protection systems and incentives so that entrepreneurs know about them. As regards the employees who invent, there should be systems to reward them. Very few countries, like Germany for example, have issued a specific law for the benefit of employee inventors. Elsewhere, each firm, has or has not… its own award regulations. And what about small inventions which can be numerous in an enterprise? A simple modification in a tool for example. One should even encourage the innovation in the working methods. A new movement gaining time, in its small way, is an innovation too. It is precisely for this kind of
things, for this kind of proposals, which often come from the workers themselves, that
some enterprises have adopted what they call "suggestion boxes". These boxes can
be found here and there in the factory, like mail boxes, and you just slip your paper in
it. V. Research centers at universities and other academic institutions The first thing that strikes a visitor in developing countries is the importance of science and technology institutions, and other university research centers, compared to local industries. The number of university graduate, the level of knowledge among academics is often very high. Their primary function, I know, is to educate. And at a higher level, to publish the results of their research - usually basic research. All this is good and important. And yet, one can regret that in our changing world of today, where everything is entwined, academics live in their "ivory tower"… while local industries live in their compounds, with no link between them! Policies for promoting inventiveness and technological development must tackle this problem. If traditionally, scientists, for ethical reasons, think that their discoveries should be made free to the human community, nowadays, research centers and scientific institutions have understood that through patenting their scientists' inventions, they could bring money in. Mainly to finance further research. A survey conducted in Denmark a few years ago (1992) confirms this trend; only 12 per cent of the scientists recognized ethical-humanistic considerations to be an important reason for not filing patents. In fact, the survey shows clearly that the most important reasons for not filing patents are practical reasons. They are the following in the order of declining importance.
Here is the heart of the
problem. A scientific career is built on publications. Yet in many countries, and in
almost all third world countries, patents live their own life - and/or death - unknown to
the academic world. Under these conditions, how can a patent be considered an asset in the
career of a scientist? Unless things will change. And things are changing at last! More
and more universities and research centers in the US, in Europe and Japan recognize
nowadays patents as equivalent to published papers. I mean equivalent to articles written
for scientific journals and/or lectures given at different symposia. VI. Women and girls No policy promoting inventiveness and technological innovation can nowadays ignore half of the country, namely women, so often overlooked in the history of invention. Women inventors do exist, indeed they need very badly to be taken in hand and supported. Most of the time, their inventions are hidden from public view and their talents insufficiently exploited. Having studied this question very closely for many years and having written several books on the subject of contemporary women inventors, I can assure you that women inventors play a particularly important role today. But there are so few women inventors, some may say. Precisely: It is necessary to help bring them in the limelight, to give them special attention and recognition. And here, much can be done in cooperation with women's organizations, women's magazines, etc. The same applies to girls. Some people continue to repeat that "girls are not interested in science and technology anyway". That is not true. Statistics of invention contests among school children and pupils in Sweden reveal that after 12 to 15 years of contest, the participation of girls has increased from 12 per cent to reach a level equivalent to that of boys. Needless to say that girls need
special encouragement. They also desperately need role models. School texts, popular
science books only offer men role models to which girls cannot identify with. Let's make
known to the young generation the names of successful women inventors, be they Nobel prize
winners or simple housewives with simple inventions. VII. Youth Youth are the most important group of potential inventors. Any policy promoting inventiveness should develop technological awareness of the young generation. Among the measures used by a number of countries, mention could be made of the following: the publication of a greater number of books to popularize science; the adoption of radio and TV programs on science and technology; the establishment of science clubs for boys and girls; the organization of science and invention competitions and exhibitions for school pupils. In my view, what is essential in such programs is the development of creativity among boys and girls alike, the increase of the number of future generations of "thinking" people, rather than just the increase of the number of inventors. Viewed from a much wider perspective, it is important that education systems should be oriented in such a way to stimulate creativity in general and technological creativity in particular. Therefore, it is not sufficient that more emphasis be placed on the teaching of scientific disciplines, its is necessary that this teaching, as well as the teaching of all disciplines, be based on the discovery of knowledge and the development of critical attitudes rather than on the more passive absorption of knowledge. Regarding the spirit of observation, of logic and research, I am tempted to recall a well-known German scientist, Mannfred von Ardenne, who said: "I recommend to youth, also to my own children, to cultivate a certain basic attitude, that when seeing something, they should not regard it as being completed, but that they should have the basic attitude, 'Everything I come upon can be improved', and then ask themselves, 'How can I optimize?'" Back to HOME page  |
