The Opportunity

In 2001 PPG launched MindMatters’ Innovator™ software in their Fiberglass, Glass, Chemicals, and Coatings business units.  The Innovator was originally intended to collect ideas from scientists in

their Research and Development centers; however, the system quickly spread to other departments and business units.  It eventually became the center of PPG’s entire innovation initiative and was integrated with human resources systems to manage innovation for 20,000 people. 

As usage of the Innovator spread, ideas flowed quickly into system, and business units began testing these new ideas in product concepts.  As a result, many ideas were being adopted or integrated into PPG products, and legal implications became clear.  Scientists were submitting ideas that had substantial proprietary value, and this information had to be managed, reviewed, and dispositioned to insure the value was captured and legally protected.  With a product portfolio as expansive as PPG’s, maintaining competitive differentiation as well as the “freedom to operate,” through intellectual property protection was essential.

Because PPG was currently using the Innovator for the capture of product and process innovation, adding the capability to manage the intellectual property aspect was straightforward.  Scientists were already adding technical-related information about their inventions into the Innovator for product reviews, and so the system was collecting the basic elements of the invention such as, creation date, review histories, analysis results, and abstracts.  In addition, the system was already tuned to deal with the legal implications of managing both people and ideas from different geographies, locations, and departments, thus security potential for intellectual property was well established and concrete.  All that was required was to integrate the remaining legal elements, and then to create workflows to actively manage the information through the patent review process.

The benefits of this simple integration were great.  Since the current inventions’ process was entirelypaper-based and not integrated with their innovation process, inventors were duplicating efforts, review committees were unaware of pending intellectual property issues, and patent attorneys were sometimes scrambling to bridge gaps between new products and disclosure.  Chief IP Counsel John Williamson summed it up succinctly, “The former system used for invention review and disclosure was antiquated, paper-based, and inefficient.  Inventors dropped ideas into a ‘black hole’ and essentially never saw the assessment of their work.”

MindMatters Solution

In late 2003, PPG considered the ramifications of completely changing their paper-based system for managing invention disclosures.  The principle concern was whether scientists, who were already overwhelmed with electronic systems, would not only accept the new solution, but also consider it an improvement over the current one.  In this situation, MindMatters’ objective was to add functionality and refinements to Innovator specifically requested by the Intellectual Property department, design a workflow to successfully manage ideas through the disclosure process, as well as simplify the life of PPG’s scientists and inventors.

To begin the process, MindMatters spent time analyzing the current workflow through the Intellectual Property Department, and mapped and refined the entire legal process.  In addition to streamlining the process, the new system allowed patent attorneys to visualize their entire docket of inventions throughout the overall process.  Attorneys were able to search through disclosure documents and patent applications, review individual scores and comments, and utilize control over the whole disclosure portfolio.  Since incoming inventions were initially distributed to patent attorneys based on department and expertise, it was easy to see the entire portfolio.  Whereas in the past, preparing for patent review meetings meant days of copying documents and assembling “patent books,” it was now possible with the press of  a button.  “Innovator allowed the IP attorneys to develop a new process for the review meetings.”  Patent Attorney Dennis Millman said, “It acts as a bulletin board to see all ideas coming in.  It’s very helpful to us; we can find things faster.”

The benefits were also obvious for the scientists and inventors.  As a built in feature, Innovator includes an electronic disclosure form as well an electronic patent application.  An inventor can create an entirely electronic submission to be reviewed.  “This creates extreme tidiness in the capture of ideas and saves time in the ease of the transfer of information between inventor and review committees.  It also provides a vehicle for the inventor to see where his innovation is in the review process, how it is rated, read comments, and what, if anything, he needs to do to move it forward,”  stated Williamson.

Both Millman and Williamson said the inventors like the system and that R&D directors support it; they perceive it as a time saver.  Referring to the inventors, Millman said, “I shouldn’t have been surprised by how they accepted and embraced it, and how excited they were about seeing everything done around one idea.”

Typical patent review committee meetings are plagued by a host of issues; incomplete invention disclosure forms, unprepared attendees, missing documentation, and scheduling problems.  For many organizations, these issues are well known, but are oftentimes difficult to address.  Members of the patent review committee are typically the most senior people in the organization, and so have less time to devote to this important process.  With the Innovator, all of the information is at each reviewer’s fingertips, eliminating the need to pass over an application because of incomplete or missing documentation.  In addition, review meetings can be completed virtually, with each person in different locations, all while sharing the same information.  “Innovator acted as a new vehicle for collaborating and sharing before any  disclosure went to IP review.” Said Millman.  Williamson added, “There’s less opportunity for errors within Innovator’s electronic disclosure form. There’s a series of checks and balances in place that paper forms don’t offer.”

Innovator now manages invention disclosures from their initial inception throughout the invention process, and acts as a portal to PPG’s invention portfolio. The software supports business unit collaboration, while coordinating legal requirements.  Innovator further provides an executive window to the portfolio, providing instant reports, metrics, and an overall snapshot of the intellectual property pipeline. 

Results

After a successful initial pilot, the Intellectual Property Department made the Innovator the de facto global standard for the submission, management, and review of invention disclosures.  Rollout to all of PPG’s employees was originally intended to take place over a one-year period in order to properly train and orient everyone on the new procedures.  However, after a few weeks, the demand was so great that the rollout was accelerated. 

“Innovator saves everyone time by improving the flow of information,” stated Williamson as he explained that the new process has had a measurable impact on everyone from the inventors, legal secretaries, patent attorneys, review committee members, to lab directors.  “Now, we can get an immediate overview of any invention disclosure in PPG.  We spend less time administering paperwork, and more time performing real legal work; something that benefits the entire organization.”

“I see Innovator as a tool that helps PPG develop new-to-world ideas and become a service problem solver to customers,” stated Millman.  “With innovator, they (inventors) can add in new developments and draw attention to new findings in a matter of minutes.”  Williamson and Millman added, “The ideal end result is to be able to evaluate an innovation within days of receiving it.  With the Innovator, we now have this capability.” 

About MindMatters

MindMatters Technologies Inc. helps organizations stimulate, capture, validate, protect and profit from innovative product ideas and emerging intellectual property created by employees, customers, suppliers, and business partners. Placed at the front end of your product lifecycle management (PLM) process, MindMatters’ patent-pending software, Innovator, is the only enterprise system that helps business and legal managers effectively determine which innovations are most likely to turn into profitable products. Companies like 3M, Dana, PPG, Sony, and Johnson Controls rely upon Innovator to support their product innovation and intellectual property initiatives.