Introduction
The evaluation of a new invention is a very difficult task, because sometimes the Technology Transfer (TT) managers do not have all the information necessary.
Having a complete description of an invention is a good starting point but sometimes it is not enough.
It is of paramount importance to understand the technical problem solved by an invention, and to know if and how someone else has already solved the same problem and the closest prior art.
Furthermore, it is useful to highlight the essential technical features of the invention: this is a good starting point to carry out a comprehensive state-of-the-art search in patent databases.
After having identified the closest prior art (one or two documents), the next step is the evaluation of the patentability requirements.