Protecting Ideas and New Products Available to Purchase

Are companies effectively protecting new product ideas by using the patent system? Company awareness of the need to use the system to protect new ideas/concepts is focused on, the practical benefits accruing to companies when patents are obtained are discussed, and the necessity for companies to search patent information already in existence is referred to. Comments are made about the present system, with observations on how the recent White Paper, “Intellectual Property and Innovation” presages changes in the patent system law.