How not to "Reinvent the Wheel"?: Technological Anteriority as basis for Technological Development

Abstract

Technological advances require companies to be more flexible and dynamic, having the ability to learn and innovate to be competitive. Given the innovation as something new, there is a need to conduct studies of technological anteriority before the start of the research, because it is possible to know the technologies that already exist and develop something with market potential. The objective was to investigate the studies of technological anteriority performed by patents related to diagnostic kit for detecting leishmaniasis. Characterized as qualitative and descriptive, the research was based on secondary data obtained through search strategies in the patents database Thomson Innovation, which covers several patents worldwide and brings together powerful tools for analyzing intellectual properties. The results showed that from the 44 retrieved documents, 26 cited other studies or were mentioned. From the 412 citations made, 76% refer to Non-patents, mostly scientific articles, and 24% to Backwards, such as patents. From Backwards, 53% refer to quotes of inventions from their own countries, demonstrating a regional approximation. Related to Forward, only 3 technologies were referenced by later studies, which implies the importance of these technologies to the evolution of science. Thus, this studied showed the relevance of technological anteriority, which has been used in the realization for precedented technological mappings and allowance for future studies.

Keywords

• Innovation
• Technological Anteriority
• Technology