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3.7.1 Publication search and analysis

Obviously, the cheapest and fastest part of the R&D effort is to retrieve practically everything that has been published on all the different factors relevant to the proposed process. This publications search can be subcontracted to specialists or academic libraries where it is done by computer screening of large databases, according to agreed key words. The search output is a long list of published items with titles, address, and, in some cases, abstracts. In order to keep this output in a manageable volume, one should be careful in the choice of these key words or, preferably, start exploring with a trial-and-error iterative procedure.

The resulting references can be first sorted and divided by the R&D team into two categories: those that were published because the authors consid- ered the new information to be of considerable scientific interest (of course), but with no commercial value, and those that were patented.

The collection of workable copies of the preselected publications can be subcontracted to specialized organizations, and sometimes can be lengthy and expensive, since most of the comprehensive experimental data was pub- lished long ago when the competition for journal space was not so intense. Unfortunately, in more recent publications, new experimental data are more often presented as smallfigures that can hardly be used as sources for numer- ical data correlation. If a set of such data appears to be important enough, one could try to locate the authors and ask them for a copy of their original numerical data. It was observed that most authors were more responsive when such a request came from an academic researcher than from a com- mercial company. Some publications also need to be translated.

The senior R&D team should devote an analytical effort to the study of these publications and of their results, and possibly to the numerical corre- lation of the included experimental data, if needed. In addition to the factual information on the data, such analysis may give the senior R&D team some interesting hints about:

• Reasons that initiated such previous research work • Strategic aims of the authors and their supporters

• Why they didn’t succeed in this aim on the industrial scale up until now After the distribution of this survey and analysis to the core team and their relevant consultants, a thorough discussion can be very useful before

deciding and starting on any significant experimental program.

3.7.2 Intellectual property and secrecy

If one accepts for a fact that the novel industrial process underconsideration is important and needed on the market, one must also assume that the com- petition is also looking at new processes of their own, which could be quite close to the one proposed in this project.

Everyone in this activity is trying to keep his own programs secret for as long as possible. (“Confidential” may be a nicer word) Every corporation has its own secrecy procedures and all its employees, consultants, and con- tractors are generally signed to extensive formal secrecy obligations. But it should be recognized that such signed undertaking is mostly of a moral nature, since it would be practically impossible to enforce, particularly with dissatisfied participants.

Thus, some corporations sometimes add restrictions on the internal flow of process information, on a need-to-know basis (limited distribution lists), which is a normal practice in certain business departments. Such restrictions have been shown to be very detrimental to a process development team, where all members should be talking freely among themselves while contributing to a common goal. These “limited distribution lists” can have clearly negative effects on the motivations and efficiency of certain members who may feel personally insulted, such as, “they don’t trust me.”

In the final instance, there is no alternative in this kind of activity but to work with reliable, well-motivated, and satisfied individuals.

3.7.3 Patent application

If another corporation has already filed a patent application that could pre- vent the implementation of the proposed process, this should be known as early as possible, so that the claims of such an application can be avoided and possibly by-passed. The real problem is that patent applications are made public only 2 to 3 years after their filing date, and most patent attorneys can use perfectly legal tactics to extend this period.

The issues affecting the patent filing strategy are complex and all derive from the potential menace of “the competition:”

1. The promoters (inventors) need the patent award as proof of the novelty of their proposed process and of their intellectual property, partly for their self-satisfaction, but mostly as a necessary condition and instru-

ment which will allow them to sell and transmit the process to the

implementing corporation. Note that the patent office’s checking and awarding means only that no public information or previous patent claim has been recorded, but it does not state that the process will work as claimed or that it has any practical usefulness.The filing date of the application is an important asset, but it is also a limitation, since it sets the procedural mechanism in motion. When the patent is awarded, the inventors have to decide within a short fixed period about the other countries where they need to apply for and record the application at their own significant expenses. Most importantly, a patent application represents the best extrapolation of what was known to the inventors at that particular filing date. Such extrapo- lation includes the purposeful addition, into the claims, of conditions that have not yet been proven, but are expected to give, more or less, similar results, e.g., a larger group of reagents or solvents, a wider range of operating conditions, and so forth. As the inventors will probably continue to work after filing their application and could arrive at “better” claims later, they would have to decide whether it is worthwhile to cancel the previous application (and lose their pri- ority date) and file a new application with the better claims. 2. The management of the implementing corporation needs a strong patent

to justify and protect the company’s significant investment. They also are interested in securing the widest possible coverage, both in substance and in countries worldwide. But if the corporation managers were not part of the decision-making on this subject at an early enough stage, they will have a complex choice when they take over, between filing an additional patent application, or canceling the previous application and reapplying, or accepting what has already been done.

3. The consultations with expert patent attorneys are concentrated mostly around the legal procedural options and the exact wording in the application. There is a specific professional “jargon”which is appar- ently mandatory in all relations with patent offices. However, there is an element of risk as to the extent of coverage in the claims, which is the exact definition of what is claimed to be new and exclusive to this patent. A larger coverage in the claims may weaken their exclu-

sivity position and could be more difficult to secure (that is to con-

vince the patent examiner). A narrower coverage may be held stron- ger, but could be easier to by-pass. This coverage has to be decided by the inventors, possibly with the input of the project management (if there is any at this point) with respect to the possible competition.

3.7.4 Process modeling

Process mathematical modeling has been one of the main advance fronts in chemical engineering research and development since the 1980s, with excellent theoretical books and computer programs available. Today, this mathematical

modeling can be a useful tool in process development in many cases. More specifically, it can be useful if the relevant numerical data can be made avail- able or can be reasonably inferred from precedents. This possibility can make a lot of difference in the entire program.

Thus, the contribution of an expert in this field is needed, at an early stage, to draft a model from the principal elements of the process definition and to define exactly which numerical data will be required to make the performance and results of such a model significant. (This is discussed further in Chapter 9, Section 9.5.)