The purpose of this research was to further my understanding of the inventive
experience by capturing the perceptible thoughts, feelings, emotions, and actions that
occur during the development of a Patentable Invention. The author, subject of the study,
is an experienced inventor with numerous Patents issued and pending. The invention
produced during this research was a mechanical device comprised of approximately
seventy parts. Documentation of the product was through a formal Application for a U.S.
Patent, filed pro se, and accompanied by nine pages of formal drawings also generated by
the Researcher/Subject.
The qualitative research process employed a phenomenological framework and
included a variety of established data collection techniques, many of which had not
previously been applied to the study of invention. Guided by the question of better
understanding the experience of invention and its meaning, data were collected in written,
verbal, and drawn form. An emphasis on real-time data collection avoided many of the
pitfalls of autobiographical and retrospective verbal techniques. Over one hundred pages
of transcribed data and over 400 developmental drawings were produced and analyzed. In addition to the traditional qualitative data analysis processes, the researcher developed
a variety of data organization, coding, and analysis techniques providing quanitative
insight into graphical data.
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