Post-it proves an application can be more valuable than invention
In a series of blog posts, Marco Coolen offers a glimpse into his work as a Dutch and European patent attorney at AOMB.
Published on September 13, 2026
Marco, a patent attorney at AOMB since 2013, shares his expertise on IO+ about patents—how they work, why they matter, and when they lose their value.
Ask people about the history of the Post-it, and you’ll usually hear the same story. A researcher at 3M, Spencer Silver, accidentally developed an adhesive that wasn’t actually strong enough. Years later, his colleague Art Fry saw a use for it. Together, they laid the foundation for one of the most successful office products ever.
It’s a great story. But what continues to fascinate me about the Post-it note lies elsewhere: not in the serendipitous discovery, but in the way intellectual property played out in this case.
100x Marco Coolen
This is the 100th column by Marco Coolen on Sunday morning. This interview is to celebrate and understand his drives.
It starts with the basic patent on the repositionable adhesive. That adhesive had a unique property: it adhered well enough to stay in place, but could also be removed without leaving any damage. Technically speaking, that was an interesting invention, and it was granted patent protection.
Many entrepreneurs would have thought at that point: that’s it. The technology is protected. The job is done. But the story didn’t end there. A smart technology doesn’t automatically make a successful product. The real breakthrough came when someone realised the adhesive could be used for a sticky note that would stick but could also be repositioned. What sounds obvious today was anything but logical back then. After all, until that moment, there was no market for self-adhesive sticky notes.
That application was so innovative it could even be protected by intellectual property rights. That’s what makes the Post-it legally interesting. Many entrepreneurs view innovation as if it always starts with a new technology: a new machine, a new material, or a new algorithm. But often, the greatest value only emerges when someone discovers what you can do with that technology.
An existing technique can suddenly take on a completely new meaning in a different context. You don’t just see this with the Post-it. Many successful innovations are actually clever combinations of existing building blocks. The individual components were already known. The application was not. And that’s exactly where opportunities for new protection sometimes arise.
That’s also why I often encourage entrepreneurs to take a broader view of their innovations—not just the technology itself, but also the way it’s used. Perhaps the real innovation isn’t in the material, the process, or the software, but in the application—in the combination.
Or in a product that suddenly applies an existing technical principle to solve a problem no one had thought of before. The Post-it note illustrates this beautifully. Most people see a little yellow piece of paper. 3M saw a new application. And it was precisely that application that grew into a global market. That may well be the most important lesson from this invention. Innovation isn’t always about coming up with something completely new. Sometimes it’s about using something that already exists in a completely new way. And very occasionally, that application ultimately proves to be more valuable than the original invention itself.
The World of Patents
With the help of Dutch and European patent attorney Marco Coolen (AOMB), we can better understand the world of patents. How do they work, why are they important, and when do they lose their usefulness?