@ARTICLE{10.21494/ISTE.OP.2016.0108, TITLE={The Patent, a “Swiss Knife” to invent and to innovate}, AUTHOR={Yann de Kermadec, }, JOURNAL={Technology and Innovation}, VOLUME={1}, NUMBER={Issue 2}, YEAR={2016}, URL={https://www.openscience.fr/The-Patent-a-Swiss-Knife-to-invent-and-to-innovate}, DOI={10.21494/ISTE.OP.2016.0108}, ISSN={2399-8571}, ABSTRACT={Patent language is located at the center of interactions between innovation, inventions and patents. To elaborate a patent, one must answer a logical, powerful but non-natural question, « Which new combinations of means do you propose? ». If you translate very long and complicated phrases of patent claims into drawings called “means tree”, the patent language becomes very clear to engineers. The means tree facilitates the use of patents within a global approach named « Innovate thanks to patents ». Being simultaneously a strategic tool to protect and exploit innovations, a mine of information and a powerful design language, allow to foster, to secure and to better exploit innovation projects.}}