2021-04-122017-08-011955251319552505WOS;000406971500021SCOPUS;2-s2.0-84990854947http://hdl.handle.net/10784/28914Current product design processes are demanding functionality improvements, in order to make the difference in the market. This situation has led designers, engineers and specialist to work together in order to develop new methodologies that might reduce development time and support the quality in the product. In this connection, several tools and methodologies have been proposed over the last decade centred in the combination of industrial design techniques with functional engineering design. Many of these new solutions were based into the treatment of patents in order to reduce the analysis time in terms of existing solutions and how those solutions could be implemented into creation of new products. This article presents the development of a creativity method, based on combination and mutation models, that supports patent search and analysis in the early design stages. The use of this method will be portrayed into the design of the locking system of a medical device used for the treatment of the camptocormia.enghttps://v2.sherpa.ac.uk/id/publication/issn/1955-2513info:eu-repo/semantics/articleCreativity toolsEarly designPatent search methodologyCamptocormiaMedical devices design2021-04-12Ríos-Zapata, D.Duarte, R.Pailhès, J.Mejía-Gutiérrez, R.Mesnard, M.10.1007/s12008-016-0352-1