Rather, Immersion leverages its patents, engineering skills and ties to the academic research community to develop both force feedback hardware and software.
It's dead easy to file a patent – no great skill is required.
Milpitas, Calif.-based SanDisk, by contrast, is known for its rich portfolio of patents and its skill at packaging memory into memory cards sold in drug stores and supermarkets, as well as its line of digital media players, which trail Apple's iPod in the U.S. market but outranks sales of Microsoft's Zune by threefold.
Patent mapping requires many skills.
Find out how to apply your hybrid skills to patent law--track down some local law firms and ask for an informational interview.
The new idea to emerge from the meeting was that the agro-industrial complex needs to let go, not put all its faith and future profits into patents but share skills.
Patent mapping is a true interdisciplinary skill: It involves understanding the science, being able to see business opportunities, and (often) also requires a good understanding of patent law.
And there have been increasingly frequent complaints about the quality of the patents themselves and doubts about the skills of the patent examiners.
"The lag between the skills of the patent office and innovation has been there a long time," said Philip Scranton, a Rutgers professor who specializes in the history of industry and technology.
Second, originator companies have honed their patent litigation and preemptive competition skills.
The latter is generally the province of lawyers, the courts, and law enforcement professionals, but ensuring that a patent is strong requires different skills and experience.
