> what else could it be if not research? it could be experimentation and learning about your own invented system and mechanic, not uncovering of existing truth

> what else could it be if not research? it could be experimentation and learning about your own invented system and mechanic, not uncovering of existing truths the word "search" makes this more clear, the answers research finds already exist, we just didn't find them yet. that is not the case for inventions that don't work, and need to be experimented with until they work. there may, certainly, be some incidental research discovery while attempting to make an invention work (e.g. if Space X had hit on something new about physics itself that had been causing their prior experiments to fail) -- but nobody "owns" such truth discovered, while of course they own their invention that works as a result of applying known truths to a creation.