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We are PeelPioneers, Europe's largest processor of circular orange peels.
We use the peels to make beautiful circular products.
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The Netherlands Patent Office supported PeelPioneers with search advice.
We advised them on how to search patent literature as a small business.
He told us to start by reading claims, which means starting at the end.
So you first read what is claimed in the patent...
and move on to examples to find out what the claims are based on.
If you have time left, you read the rest of the patent.
What's interesting is that our patent advisor...
knows how patents work, and we have the technical knowledge.
That makes for an interesting conversation on what exactly these patents contain.
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Thanks to the information we were able to give them...
they could develop their idea to quite a high level...
and even arrived at a Freedom to Operate analysis.
FTO means you have done work to make sure your process or product...
does not infringe on an approved patent filed by a third-party competitor.
We've carried out that analysis, which taught us a lot...
about how our competitors go about their work.
So we're quite sure we do it differently, which is very valuable information.
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We help businesses make strategic choices as they build their company.
Say you're trying to bring a new process or a product to market.
What work do you have to do with regard to intellectual property...
to make your endeavour a success?
Information in patents is important. You learn what competitors are doing...
and what has been done in the past.
Some patents have expired, but still contain valuable information.
And everything is based on concrete examples.
You can read them, try a version of them yourself...
and develop new ideas for your own research.
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Reading and analysing patent literature costs time and money...
but it may qualify for a WBSO subsidy.
So for small businesses, like PeelPioneers...
doing research becomes much more interesting and feasible.
And it promotes innovation. What more could you wish for?
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