Scope of the Problem

If one wishes to learn about the latest court decisions regarding patent validity, infringement or damages it is easy to find numerous analysees in many journals and blogs. This makes sense, because for patent attorneys, charged with counseling clients, a precise knowledge of the law is essential. 

But let us say that one wishes to ask questions of the following sort:

1. Does it make sense for a manufacturer having 150 employees and an engineering staff of 15 to retain a patent attorney to look over the latest designs and see if there is anything worth patenting?

2. Would it make sense for a hospital to try to harvest employees' insights into ease of operation of various pieces of equipment, to originate new patents?

3. Are software patents a net benefit or detriment to society?

4. For a company with $30 billion in sales, filing 300 patent applications a year, would it make sense to set up a bidding system for patent procurement work, to drive down patent procurement costs.

5. Should mutual fund managers acquire a facility for analyzing patents, in order to determine a value of company's patent portfolios, to determine whether to buy or sell a particular company?

6. How can a company organize their patent procurement department to get the greatest value from each dollar spent?

It will be the goal of this blog to inquire into the answer to these questions, and other similar questions.