. Companies intend to secure the rights of their inventions and
innovations in the progress of their technology development or as the
consequences of development, so that they will possess intangible properties.
If the company only regards the realization of invention in terms of
business, it tends to result in spoiling the liberal ideas and development
ability of technical persons.
The training of technical persons for
inventing and innovating in a wider range and in a various situations can enrich
the lives of technical persons, and further can contribute to the company's
development.
Therefore, we suggest the ways to educate and train not only
for the inventions and innovations as the results of the technology development,
but also for the inventions and innovations as the purpose of technology
development.
First of all, we propose a question|Why inventions and
innovations are necessary for the companies?
For the answer of the question,
please consider the recognition of the time in these modern days. What kind of
world we live in the 21st century?
This new century will be the age of
intellectual properties.
The reason can be easily found if you look back 200
years prior to 21st century, that is 19th and 20 century.
The 200 years
between 19th and 20th century can be divided into four periods, each of the
periods being about 30 years of time:
The first period is the 30 years
around 1800. In this period, the automatic weaving machine of Arkwright and the
steam engine of Watt, and moreover, the spinning engine were invented. It was
about the time of the Industrial Revolution occurred in UK;
The second
period is the 30 years around 1850. In this period, iron and steel became
available and the railway network was constructed;
Further, the 30 years
around 1900 is the third period, including the World War E. In this period,
electricity, automobiles, shipping and aircraft were invented and became to be
of practical use; and
The forth period is the 30 years around 1950, also
including the World War II, when electronics, polymer chemistry, atomic energy
and antibiotics were invented. More to speak, what we call the three great
invention invented during the World War II are atomic bomb, penicillin and
radar.
The 30 years around 2000 will be the following fifth period when the
technology directed to entropy minimum and the technologies such as atomic
fusion and biotechnology are continued to be invented. However, it is the time
when the former inventions
Who can invent?
Is an invention a product of a
genius? The answer is NO. Inventing is not a kind that only one in a million can
do. Anyone can invent some kinds of invention:
Housewives usually think of
new ideas that make them easy and convenient to work in the kitchen and of new
ways of housekeeping.
As for artists, creating, together with practicing
artistic skills, takes important portion in their works.
Office staffs think
of efficient ways for arranging documents received.
At factories, works are
done with creative and original ideas, so that there are also full of grounds
for inventions.
Therefore, chances to invent can only be found in research
institutes of companies and in laboratories of university.
To be a great
inventor, it is not necessary to have a high I.Q. score nor outstanding grades
in science and engineering at universities.
Students who gain good results
for examinations of science and engineering are confident only with their
technological knowledge, so they tend to depress their new ideas for invention
with a negative thought|No one can do such thing. On the other hand, students
are not good at science and engineering tend to conceive extraordinary ideas,
such as a permanent system.
If such mentioned negative thoughts could be
remedied, anyone will be able to invent something.
In 1940, in the United States, 18 great inventors were selected
and announced for the 150th anniversary of the establishment of Patent Law.
All of the inventors were raised in poverty, only 2 of them could study at
and graduate from a university: Eli Whitney (Cotton gin); Robert Fulton
(Steamboat); Cyros Hall McCormick (combine); Samuel F. Morse (Electric
Telegraph); Charles Goodyear (Sulfuration of rubber); Elias Howe (Sewing
Machine); Christopher Latham Sholes (Typewriter); George Westinghouse
(Airbrake); Alexander Graham Bell (Telephone); Thomas Alva Edison (1,903
inventions); Nikola Stella (Induction motor), Charles Martin Hall (Hall for
producing aluminum), Ottmar Mergenthaler (Automatic casting machine), Wright
Brothers (Flyer), Lead Forest (Vacuum wave detector), Leo Hendrik Beakland
(Bakelite), William M. Barton (Fractional distillation of petroleum for
purifying petroleum)
INVENTIONS AT THE TIME OF INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
How were the inventions done and why?
(A) gThere is no need to study for invention.h
The
Case of Richard Arkwright's Invention:Automatic Spinning Machine (1732|1792)
Richard Arkwright, the youngest of thirteen children, was born
in Preston, Lancashire in England. He came from a poor family and had no chance
to be educated. He learned to read and write after he had succeeded at the age
of fifty.
From an early age, he was apprenticed to a barber, and became a
barber, having his shop at the underground of liquor store. His shop prospered
as he discounted the charge due to the location of his shop, and later, he
practiced his trade of wig-making.
This wig-making had a unique dying
process and had a good reputation. After this business declined in prosperity,
he became engrossed in developing a perpetual motion.
However, he was still
in poverty, and his wife, who had vex at him being so engrossed in the
development of perpetual motion, had destroyed his machine.
His wifeÕs
intention for destroying his machine was that she hoped him to give up the
development of perpetual motion. However, Arkwright was a kind of man who was
stubborn and impulsive, so he has divorced form his wife.
After the divorce,
he invented a spinning machine for spinning thin cotton thread from raw cotton,
employing the power of the water-wheel, in 1767. With this machine, he
established the factory production with consistent operation, and became the
first industry capitalist.
(B)gNecessity is the mother of invention.h
The
Case of Josiah Wedgewood:Utilization of Photograph with wet plate (1730|1795)
Wedgewood, the youngest of twelve children, was born in
Mid-England. He had to leave school at the age of nine, after the death of his
father.
At the age of nine, he became an apprentice to his elder brotherÕs
pottery factory. In his early days, he suffered from smallpox and had lost the
use of his right leg, however, due to such disability, he untiringly
experimented, and tried and tried to contrive with his work while the others at
his age were at play. He then found a producing method of imitation of porphyry,
and was willing to take difficult orders.
He was good at repairing of
damaged parts of white pottery made in China, Japan and Holland, which could not
made in England, and also had an outstanding skill in reproducing antiques.
Although with such kinds of works, he could not get enough profit for the time
he had spent, he preferred take such kinds of works in order to gain a good
reputation and peopleÕs credit. As for the profit, he concentrated on the
quantity production of daily goods for which he taxed his ingenuity in quick
producing of utility goods with cheap price and original design. Then, he
managed to buy a land near Soho, a famous place for ironware (chains for watches
and cuffs buttons) production and established his own factory at where the
pottery was produced by lines of machines. At that time, he received an order
from Russia.
The order was that to deliver one thousand differently
patterned white pottery plates of his popular brand,gQueenÕs Wareh, within a
short period of time.
The problem was that to collect one thousand original
different pictures to be drawn onto each plate in a short period of time.
Wedgewood gathered various information and got to know ultimately that a chemist
had discovered the fact that silver nitrate reacts to light. He then put wet
plate into a dark box and succeeded in taking photographs of views between
Etruria and London in order to accomplish the order.
It was done a half of
the century before the photos of daguerreotype.
It was Wedgewood's
character, always trying new things and preferably taking orders of hard job,
that made him possible to deliver one thousand differently patterned white
pottery plates in a short period of time.
Necessity is the mother of
invention.
(C)gStudying is not necessary for invention.h
The
Case of Wright Brothers in Dayton, Ohio, in the United States
In 1903, a person-carrying craft, a catapult carrying a gasoline
engine of 52 horsepower, called gAerodomeh developed by Professor Langley, was
about to stately take off from a houseboat on the river of Potomac in
Washington, the United States. However, gAerodomehcollapsed in front of many
audience. It ended in a heavy failure, wasting seventy thousand dollars of
Government money, in that the pilot faced to a danger of drowning.
The New
York Times at that time claimed that it was a waste of Government money, and
stated that it will take another thousand years until man can fly.
However,
after only nine days later of Langley's failure, at 10 a.m. of December 17,
1903, obscure Wright Brothers who fixed bicycles in Dayton, Ohio, succeeded in
flying with their flyer.
They did not have a chance to be educated at
university, nor did they present any thesis.
Great invention cannot be established by itself.
Usher presented his theory on invention that great invention, which
marks the era, does not come suddenly appear by itself totally, and that various
small inventions developed in advance of such great invention marking the era
have effects thereon, and further, another small inventions continues to be
developed together with such great invention. In other words, developing of
invention is accumulative.
Penicillin was invented by Fleming in 1928,
however, Tyndall, being famous for eTyndall phenomenonf, reported in 1876 that
gThere was green mold (penicillium) grown on the surface of soup left in a test
tube, and the soup underneath the green mold was clear, therefore, it could be
thought that the green mold had an antibacterial effect.h Unfortunately, no one
got interested in his founding.
A British economist has analyzed einventionf.
Abbott P.
Usher states that einventionfis not flashes of genius, based on intuition, nor
does it necessarily occur at need.
Here, we will introduce four stages for
the accomplishment of invention, stated by Usher.
(1) Perception of Problem;
(2) Examination of Primary Factor for Solving the Problem;
(3) Discovery of
Basic Means of Solving the Problem by Discernment; (4) Modification at the time
of Materialization of the Means of Solving.
He has also stated in his theory
that great invention, which marks the era, does not come suddenly appear by
itself totally, and that various small inventions developed in advance of such
great invention marking the era have effects thereon, and further, another small
inventions continues to be developed together with such great invention. This is
to say that developing of invention is accumulative.
Since this analysis is
superior, we would like to analyze actual inventions and venture companies,
based on UsherÕs theory.
THEME OF DEVELOPMENT
(1) Perception of problem: This relates to usual continuous consciousness, and in order to perceive problems, it is necessary to keep interests.
(2) Examination of primary factor for solving the problem and
Discovery of basic means of solving the problem by discernment This second and
third stages are very important for invention to be accomplished.
Keep
watching. By probing deeply into a problem, the other factors existing in the
inner part can be discovered with a hint that can be incidentally gained for
oneself or from the others, so that it leads to a conversion of the consequent
idea.
The theme for succession is not to be found by converting ideas, but
by probing deeply into a problem, the other factors existing in the inner part
can be discovered with a hint that can be incidentally gained for oneself or
from the others, so that it leads to a conversion of the consequent idea.
(3) The forth stage is a modification at the time of
materialization of the means of solving.
Once the second and third stages
are completed, it means that innovative technology is almost accomplished.
(4) Commercialization:In order to result in a venture company, there is the next stage, that is, a commercialization process. This process is the harder problem to be overcome, when compared to the accomplishment of innovative technology in the second and third stages.
SUCCESSIVE INVENTION AND INNOVATION
Market is
full of contradictions that it is conservative but always requires new things.
This is the elemental character of human beings.
80% of market is the
foregoing structure and function, and approximate 20% is a new functional
structure. This new functional structure, which takes about 20% of market,
satisfies the progression of market and its innovative part, and at the same
time, the foregoing structure and function, which takes about 80% of market,
satisfies the conservative part of market.
Therefore, neither things
remaining unchanged nor things being too new are accepted by market.
There
have been many cases that many of the venture companies fail at this process.
Therefore, it can be concluded that belief and enthusiasm for the developed
goods that they will be accepted in market, is necessary.
STUDY OF EXAMPLES
This study is to help the
development of invention and innovation by analysis of the history of venture
companies of the past: What did they pay attention to, having problematic
consciousness and setting a subject; and How did they deepened the subject in
order to find the means for solving and to industrialize.
As for examples,
we will herewith list the former successful inventions that are developed either
by an individual or a minor company. If you are interested, why not try
analyzing.
The inventions listed hereinafter is: Ricebin with scale, Turning
caution light, Fake crab meat, Rice with no necessity of washing, Instant
noodleeChikinramenf, Genroku sushi.
1. Ricebin with scale
(1) Perception of Problem
(2) Examination of Primary Factor for Solving the Problem
(3) Discovery
of Basic Means of Solving the Problem by Discernment
(4) Modification at the
time of Materialization of the Means of Solving
2. Turning caution light
(1) Perception of Problem
(2) Examination of Primary Factor for Solving the Problem
(3) Discovery
of Basic Means of Solving the Problem by Discernment
(4) Modification at the
time of Materialization of the Means of Solving
3. Fake crab meat
(1) Perception of Problem
(2)
Examination of Primary Factor for Solving the Problem
(3) Discovery of Basic
Means of Solving the Problem by Discernment
(4) Modification at the time of
Materialization of the Means of Solving
4. Rice with no necessity of washing
(1) Perception
of Problem
(2) Examination of Primary Factor for Solving the Problem
(3)
Discovery of Basic Means of Solving the Problem by Discernment
(4)
Modification at the time of Materialization of the Means of Solving
5. Instant noodleeChikinramenf
(1) Perception of
Problem
(2) Examination of Primary Factor for Solving the Problem
(3)
Discovery of Basic Means of Solving the Problem by Discernment
(4)
Modification at the time of Materialization of the Means of Solving
6. Genroku sushi
(1) Perception of Problem
(2)
Examination of Primary Factor for Solving the Problem
(3) Discovery of Basic
Means of Solving the Problem by Discernment
(4) Modification at the time of
Materialization of the Means of Solving
If you get interested in the above examples, please do not hesitate to send us a response by e-mail.
VALUES OF INTELECTUAL PROPERTY |
OUR CONCEPT