Abstract
A patent is a kind of technical document to protect intellectual property for individuals or enterprises. Patentable idea generation is a crucial step for patent application and analogy is confirmed to be an effective technique to inspire creative ideas. Analogy-based design usually starts from representation of an analogy source and is followed by the retrieval of appropriate analogs, mapping of design knowledge and adaptation of target solution. To diffuse one core idea into other new contexts and achieve more patentable ideas, this paper mainly centered on the first two stages of analogy-based design and proposed a patentable ideation framework. The analogical information of the source system, including source design problems and solution, was mined comprehensively through International Patent Classification analysis and represented in the form of function, behavior and structure. Three heuristics were suggested for searching the set of candidate target systems with a similar design problem, where the source design could be transferred. To systematize the process of source representation, analogs retrieval, idea transfer, and solution generation, an ideation model was put forward. Finally, the bladeless fan was selected as a source design to illustrate the application of this work. The design output shows that the representation and heuristics are beneficial, and this systematic ideation method can help the engineer or designer enhance creativity and discover more patentable opportunities.
Highlights
A patent is a document, issued by an authorized governmental department, granting a set of exclusive rights to the inventor or assignee for a limited period
When problem solving and creative idea generation are concerned in the scope of design context, similarity is described from the perspective of shared attributes, relations and functions of the systems [3, 4], the shared structures, behaviors and functions based on the function-behavior-structure (FBS) linkage [5]
Analogy-based design (ABD) is an activity where analogy is applied into the design process for inspiring designers/engineers to generate ideas, overcome design fixation and solve design problems [6, 7]
Summary
A patent is a document, issued by an authorized governmental department, granting a set of exclusive rights to the inventor or assignee for a limited period. In the theory of inventive problem solving (TRIZ), knowledge from other industries could be applied to generate high-level innovation [8], meaning that diffusing creative ideas into other contexts and making patent applications will be beneficial for individuals/enterprises to protect the core technology and discover more. It mainly includes the representation of problems, the retrieval of similar problems and the adaptation of candidate solutions [33]. To extend the patent applications of one idea/invention/solution in different technical systems, this paper will start from a creative source design, followed by the retrieval of candidate target problems through similarity analysis, and map and adjust the source solution into the target. The ideation inspired by the “bladeless fan” is applied into illustrating the research achievement further (Additional file 1)
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