Both
M59 and Rscotty are looking at this from a chemical engineering standpoint, patenting processes not products.
As long as you keep anyone out of your chemical plant, you can safeguard your secrets better than when you describe them in a patent. I worked for a company that made air suspension trailing arms. They had developed their own processes, hot pressing and molten salt hardening. They only patented products that went out the door, went on the road in plain sight. None of their processes were patented, they just kept their doors shut to unauthorized people.
So we have to see a clear distinction between process engineering, and mechanical engineering (the thing you deliberately ship out the door because thats what you sell)
When Piet Zweegers patented the forage mower in 1965 and revolutionized farming, he had to describe what made his mower a forage mower and not a mulcher like prior art.
Even though any competitor who would have one minute to look at it in action, would have an "Aha!" moment and be able to copy it.
He just mounted the blades on a saucer that kept the cut grass out of the path of the cutting blades, gently carrying it to the rear, like we all know today. He licensed the idea all over the world, for a price that was lower than any patent lawsuit would have cost his competitors.
His invention ended the days of cutting a long crop of hay twice: First drive left hand turns with the sickle bar, reverse every few meters to clear pluggage, once mown, hay it, and a week later, drive against the grain to cut the other half, also backing up every few meters to clear blockages, and taking the motorcycle to get more wooden pitman arms at the dealer because they broke so often.
My father found his first PZ CM165 mower an absolute blessing, it made mowing a hectare of hay an hour of work, instead of an entire day, and sometimes finishing the next day.
I dont know how long North America has been using the sickle bar, did you guys have diskbines before the patent expired in 1986 ? In Europe, sickle bar manufacturers quickly went out of business because of the PZ mower (off course our climate is humid, giving denser swards. The first American combine harvesters couldnt cope with tall European wheat either, after WW2)
So, thats what i am talking about: patenting an answer hidden in plain sight. When i have proven it effective, large manufacturers can copy it and steal my thunder. Not that my idea solves an international problem, it only solves a problem caused by national law, and as you know, my country is small. So a patent might just buy me some time to get into business and promote my brand, before established dogs take off with my bone.
To my knowledge, no one ever looked at a chemical product for just one minute, exclaimed "aha!" and went on to copy the production process right away.
Thats the difference between process engineering patents and product engineering patents. It gives a patent a different meaning in each branch, as one can easily copy whats sold into the field, but not what remains in the factory.
The whole mantra of "educating the world" only applies to process engineering patents. Once you sell a product and move it out the door, you are already educating the world, patent or not.
