A paper is a scientific record of an academic topic with new scientific research achievements or innovative ideas and knowledge in an experimental, theoretical or observational way, or a scientific summary of the new progress made by applying some known principles to practice, which can be read, exchanged or discussed at academic conferences; Or published in academic journals; Or written documents for other purposes, from this definition, papers are sometimes purely theoretical, and there are not too many restrictions on the content to be expressed in the papers, as long as they are new research results, including purely theoretical ones, such as mathematical formulas and scientific discoveries. Many times, the paper only brings honor and copyright to the author.
Patents are obviously different, and the contents that patents can protect are limited, such as mathematical formulas, scientific discoveries, surgical methods, cloning technology and so on. , can be published in the form of papers, can not be protected by patents. This is the difference in content.
There are also legal differences. Patent is actually the abbreviation of patent right, which is the exclusive right granted by the country or region to the patentee. Unless the patentee allows, no one else can implement the same patented technology, and the law is very mandatory, but the paper has no such legal constraint at all. You published your paper, but it can't affect others' skills in implementing your paper (of course, copyright infringement is another matter).
Many people who engage in scientific research attach great importance to the publication of papers, thinking that it is a way to reflect the advantages of knowledge, but they never thought that it is actually a free teaching material. Moreover, many experts are used to publishing papers before applying for patents, but their novelty will be lost because of the publication of papers.