Caution is a basic rule in the world of inventions and developments. For example, Microsoft had to pay US$ 30 million after a lawsuit lost against IBM. A bitter experience for Bill Gates. He wrote about it to his staff: “The best solution against such surprises is ‘patent exchange with large companies and patenting as much as we can ...’ (http://en.swpat.org/wiki/Bill_Gates_on_software_patents).

In the same vein, Steve Jobs proposes: "It was clear to me from the first day that Apple would be fine if we could create intellectual property. .... There would have been no incentive for us to develop new software and products if they had not been protected. Once intellectual property protection is no longer guaranteed, creative companies disappear or are not even founded. (Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs, New York 2011).

The statistics of the patent offices show an increasing number of applications, and show a clear trend: In the future, it will be intellectual property rights that can make a decisive competitive edge. It is not just the big inventions that are patentable. It can be worthwhile to monopolize these patents even at the smallest stages of development. Investing in months or years of research without patent protection is a high risk! Swisspat Riederer Hasler Patentanwälte AG supports their clients in securing their developments via patent in a timely manner.