The key factors to be considered for any new idea or concept, on securing a patent or leaving as a journal are.
- Industrial Applicability:
- Take a broad analysis on the applications where your concept or innovation can benefit an industry rather than a common man. If the impact of your innovation or invention in the business growth of the industry will be high, then it is always advisable to secure a patent and then sell it to an industry creating benefit on mutual ends.
- End Customer:
- If your concept is a process, most of a time the end customer or consumer of your innovation is going to be an industry which holds only two options sale or license, where being a manufacturer and suppliers becomes an entrepreneurship task where the buyers are limited. If your concept is a product and the same shall reach the mass customers’ hands without the assistance of a manufacturing or production entity where you can set up your own firm for production then commercialization will not be a himalayan task and the target consumers are in large numbers.
- Scope for Improvement:
- Any concept will always hold updations or improvements. If your concept or the solution provided is on the mid way of any innovation or if the same holds any scope for improvement from others then it is advisable to wait for the time to complete and then proceed with a patent or go for journal in case the future stage is too far.
- Career Need:
- The reputation of a person who holds a patent will be 100 times more than a person with a journal. It is because journals are mid way proposed solutions for any problem and patents are the definite optimal solution one can provide for a problem. Thus it is in the hands of the creator to carefully decide on the options.
- Finance:
- Obtaining a patent is quite costly rather compared to a journal. Patents may or may not be filed with the help of an attorney or a patent agent, but it is always wise to select on filing patents than considering for the small amounts that has to be paid as fees and for the attorneys. Publishing a journal is on a paper, filing a patent is obtaining a property.
There are much other factors that are to be considered and it is always in the wise hands of the creator to be the best decision maker for the works imparted in creating a concept or an idea.
In simple words;
- if you want your research to just be spending as much as it can, go for Journals
- if you want your research to create you an earning back in a long run with revenues 2X to 1000X go for Patents.
- Creating a Patent – Creating a Fenced and Protected Asset
- Creating a Journal – Creating an Asset and Giving it for free for anyone to use.
Patents can be applied by,
- Individuals / Team of Individuals (Researchers & Inventors)
- Small Entities (Small Companies with lesser capital)
- Large Entities (Large Companies / Educational Institutions with higher capital)
Unlike a Journal; position of a person as an inventor in a patent in no way matters.