International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) won the 1987 Nobel Prize in Physics for its outstanding achievements in high temperature superconductivity. After that, almost all superconducting experts in the world are waiting for IBM to file a patent application for superconducting materials in order to obtain the secret of IBM's research on high temperature superconductivity.
In this regard, IBM is in a dilemma. On the one hand, the company has invested a lot of money in the research of HTS, and naturally hopes to protect this secret for a long time. Although applying for a patent can be protected by law, it will be required to disclose its contents. Because the laws of some European countries stipulate that the application content must be made public first, regardless of whether the patent right can be granted or not. In this way, valuable information is revealed to the opponent invisibly. On the other hand, because the international research on superconductivity is a subject of considerable concern, if it is shelved for a long time, once someone applies for a patent first, they will use the patent right to restrain themselves.
IBM encountered the same situation in 1980. At that time, it developed a new type of semiconductor device. In order to avoid attracting the attention of peers, the company filed a patent application in Europe in German. Generally speaking, people pay attention to the scientific information in the world, especially to the reports of English as a big language. In contrast, German has become a small language, which has reduced people's attention to some extent, and the examiners of patent offices have been cheated as well as patent agents. As a result, IBM's patent application documents written in German were discovered two years later, which made its patent technology protection work receive unexpected results.
With regard to the achievements of HTS, IBM may have used a similar method, so experts pay close attention to patent offices in other countries except the United States. IBM once held its ground, apparently painstakingly choosing the method and opportunity to apply for HTS patent. However, due to the high sensitivity of superconducting technology, superconducting research materials published in any language will attract people's attention. It is difficult for IBM to "do the same thing again", but it shows that IBM attaches great importance to patent application skills. Moreover, although the modern patent system is constantly developing and changing, it is still not perfect. I believe there are still some loopholes in the legal provisions that can be exploited.