The three-body problem is a famous problem in physics. When three bodies orbit each other, the system is very unstable: any small disturbance sends the trajectories spinning off in wildly different directions.
What most people only know through the infamous Netflix show is a common problem in IP management. Here, there are three completely different worlds where everybody has the best of intentions, yet everyday disturbances are enough to make the system spiral out of equilibrium.
The legal world is where patent attorneys and examiners live. They use their own language. They speak of claims, of "characterized in that", of features that are "preferable", and of restriction requirements.
These are very important things indeed in the legal world. They, sometimes, are also just hard to understand.
The technical world is where the products live and evolve over time, where experiments are run and screwdrivers get lost.
Engineers are very focused on their solutions and completely engulfed in their endeavours, so that they forget about the other worlds entirely. They are very, very focused indeed on their creations.
In the business world, the inhabitants are entirely different. They are concerned with the big picture . They want to know whether their money is being invested well. They have to rely on KPIs, not on the tiniest details.
There are many periodic orbits known to the three-body problem. Unfortunately, most of them are not stable.
The animation below (Source) is my favourite periodic orbit: the blue product world is chased by the yellow legal world, while the business world encircles both of them and keeps the overwatch.
It is the IP manager's job to fly from planet to planet in their little spacecraft — an ambassador between worlds — gathering information, finding compromises, and then making sure those compromises are realized.
This is the process we, from Patent Cockpit, want to support. We want to bring the three worlds together and create, if not a stable system, then at least a periodic one — where constant small control updates keep the bodies close together.
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