Today, one of the most surprising tools of industrial espionage is a familiar one: the patent system. The patent system, conceptual rules implemented onto real-world business practices, is intended to protect IP rights while allowing the technology to be shared with society. However, the patent system has been leveraged and exploited into creating higher degrees of openness and transparency about an invention that the applicant may desire-a situation that the Max Planck Institute (Max Planck) knows all too well.
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