Patenting an Invention:
From Idea to Protection
Stories of innovation – #FondazionePirelliEducational
Discoveries and inventions have improved – and continue to improve – our everyday lives. From the wheel to writing, from printing to electricity, from cars to radio, from television to the Internet. Also in the field of rubber objects and tyres, countless innovations have brought great changes to the ways in which we move and travel. But what’s the difference between a discovery and an invention?
A discovery helps us find out about something that already exists in nature and is therefore the result of careful observation, as in the case of the engineer Georges de Mestral who created Velcro after studying vagrant plants that have their seeds travel on the fur of animals by using small hooks. A discovery can also be the result of some fortuitous event, which is what happened to Charles Goodyear who, after years of experiments with latex obtained from the rubber tree, managed to make the material strong and elastic by inadvertently dropping a solution of rubber and sulphur onto a hot stove, thus discovering the process of vulcanisation. Later on, it was inventions that allowed us to make the most of this amazing material. Some came to fill a need, as the case of hot water bottles, which started to be used in the early twentieth century, or for a purely economic advantage, such as the round heels designed by Pirelli between the wars, which could be reused simply by turning them round. And, of course, there are the great inventions, those that revolutionised the history of the whole world, such as the wheel, dating from over six thousand years ago. Over the centuries, wheels have been made of stone, then of wood and ultimately, but only in the late 1800s, they were covered with pieces of vulcanised rubber, becoming the first prototype tyres. First with an inner tube, and then without, and now with microchips that communicate data to the driver, tyres have undergone profound changes, helping us to travel in ever-greater safety.
Understanding the importance of research and experimentation in achieving innovation is key to understanding the importance of protecting it. As Maurizio Boiocchi, Executive Vice President of Pirelli, mentioned during a meeting with hundreds of students at the Pirelli Headquarters, “it doesn’t matter if you’re not as brilliant as Leonardo Da Vinci, for it’s only through constant research that you can achieve important results.”
Set up in 1872 as the first company in Italy for the manufacture of rubber products, Pirelli has a portfolio of about 6,500 patents that protect the inventions that have come out of its laboratories. Some of the documents relating to these inventions are now preserved in our Historical Archive: the 1901 patent for the Ercole, the first Pirelli car tyre, patents for compounds used for making tyres, patents for special fabrics for bicycle tyres dating back to the early twentieth century, and the patent of the famous Cinturato, as well as technical studies for the latest P Zero tyres.
The ability to patent an invention is essential for protecting a discovery: with 46 patent applications at the European Patent Office in 2019, Pirelli was one of the most active Italian companies in the sector, helping to make Italy one of the most innovative countries in the world.
It is a constant challenge carried out by about 1,900 people in Pirelli research and development centres around the world – people who carry out tests every day, ranging from raw materials through to the latest tests out on the track.
People who “invent the future”.
https://www.fondazionepirelli.org/it/laboratorio/storie-di-innovazione/
Stories of innovation – #FondazionePirelliEducational
Discoveries and inventions have improved – and continue to improve – our everyday lives. From the wheel to writing, from printing to electricity, from cars to radio, from television to the Internet. Also in the field of rubber objects and tyres, countless innovations have brought great changes to the ways in which we move and travel. But what’s the difference between a discovery and an invention?
A discovery helps us find out about something that already exists in nature and is therefore the result of careful observation, as in the case of the engineer Georges de Mestral who created Velcro after studying vagrant plants that have their seeds travel on the fur of animals by using small hooks. A discovery can also be the result of some fortuitous event, which is what happened to Charles Goodyear who, after years of experiments with latex obtained from the rubber tree, managed to make the material strong and elastic by inadvertently dropping a solution of rubber and sulphur onto a hot stove, thus discovering the process of vulcanisation. Later on, it was inventions that allowed us to make the most of this amazing material. Some came to fill a need, as the case of hot water bottles, which started to be used in the early twentieth century, or for a purely economic advantage, such as the round heels designed by Pirelli between the wars, which could be reused simply by turning them round. And, of course, there are the great inventions, those that revolutionised the history of the whole world, such as the wheel, dating from over six thousand years ago. Over the centuries, wheels have been made of stone, then of wood and ultimately, but only in the late 1800s, they were covered with pieces of vulcanised rubber, becoming the first prototype tyres. First with an inner tube, and then without, and now with microchips that communicate data to the driver, tyres have undergone profound changes, helping us to travel in ever-greater safety.
Understanding the importance of research and experimentation in achieving innovation is key to understanding the importance of protecting it. As Maurizio Boiocchi, Executive Vice President of Pirelli, mentioned during a meeting with hundreds of students at the Pirelli Headquarters, “it doesn’t matter if you’re not as brilliant as Leonardo Da Vinci, for it’s only through constant research that you can achieve important results.”
Set up in 1872 as the first company in Italy for the manufacture of rubber products, Pirelli has a portfolio of about 6,500 patents that protect the inventions that have come out of its laboratories. Some of the documents relating to these inventions are now preserved in our Historical Archive: the 1901 patent for the Ercole, the first Pirelli car tyre, patents for compounds used for making tyres, patents for special fabrics for bicycle tyres dating back to the early twentieth century, and the patent of the famous Cinturato, as well as technical studies for the latest P Zero tyres.
The ability to patent an invention is essential for protecting a discovery: with 46 patent applications at the European Patent Office in 2019, Pirelli was one of the most active Italian companies in the sector, helping to make Italy one of the most innovative countries in the world.
It is a constant challenge carried out by about 1,900 people in Pirelli research and development centres around the world – people who carry out tests every day, ranging from raw materials through to the latest tests out on the track.
People who “invent the future”.
https://www.fondazionepirelli.org/it/laboratorio/storie-di-innovazione/
