Need vs. Idea

WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A NEED AND AN IDEA?

Having spent years in the medical device industry and met with hundreds of physicians, there is a fundamental disparity between most physicians’ understanding of what constitutes an invention. Often physicians misinterpret their insight on a clinical need for an inventive step.

An observation in the clinic is a discovery (e.g. a totally occluded coronary artery is difficult to cross with a guide wire.) A clinical researcher can publish data on these findings and present them at a medical conference, but there is no intellectual property to own by stating that a device is needed to accomplish the following without a method or apparatus for achieving a solution.

An idea occurs when an inventive step is conceived (e.g. a new guide wire that can be steered through the wall of the artery and around the total occlusion.) Once the broad idea is conceived, there may be various embodiments of that idea (apparatus features) that can be patented along with a broad method of use.

Defining the Need comprehensively is critical to finding a solution, but the Need itself is not an invention. Furthermore, it is a tradition in medicine to share and discuss clinical discoveries, whereas, we accept medical device concepts as having an ownership stake that requires controlled dissemination prior to gaining legal protection.