What does it mean to pursue "high-value" invention patents
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Photographed by our reporter Yuan Jing: Feng Xiaoyu
■Our reporter Shen Qiusha
"The number of high-value invention patents per 10,000 people" replaced the "number of invention patents per 10,000 people" used to measure the city’s innovation strength. A slight change in Shanghai during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period has attracted widespread attention, although it has only increased The changes in orientation reflected behind the three characters are of great significance.
By 2025, Shanghai plans to have about 30 high-value invention patents per 10,000 population.
According to reports, the level of this indicator in Shanghai in 2020 will be around 20.
In other words, five years from now, it will increase by 50%.
From 20 to 30, in five years, how will Shanghai achieve a leap in high-value invention patents?
The reporter interviewed experts and scholars in the field of intellectual property.
"High value" has multiple dimensions, and "usable" is the key indicator
According to my country's patent law, patents are divided into invention patents, utility model patents and appearance design patents. Among them, invention patents have the highest gold content.
Invention patents are also an important indicator to measure the level of innovation in a region.
Last year, Shanghai had 60.2 invention patents per 10,000 population, which has been increasing for 15 consecutive years.
"As the name suggests, high-value invention patents add a'threshold' to the pool of invention patents, highlighting the part of invention patents that is more technologically content, more innovative, and more recognized by the market." Tongji University Shanghai Said Shan Xiaoguang, Dean of the International Intellectual Property Institute.
What kind of patent meets the high-value standard?
There are some conventional judging standards in the industry.
For example, invention patents in strategic emerging fields authorized by the State Intellectual Property Office within the validity period, or patents of the same family overseas, with a maintenance period of more than 10 years, and licensed others to implement profits or realize pledge financing, and obtain Invention patent of National Science and Technology Award and China Patent Award.
Generally speaking, a high-value invention patent can be regarded as a high-value invention patent if it meets the above criteria.
In the view of Zhang Yongzhong, deputy director of the Municipal Intellectual Property Office, a key indicator for being recognized as a high-value invention patent is "usefulness."
For example, to maintain a patent, a company needs to pay a certain patent maintenance fee. If the company is willing to continue to "pay the bill" for a patent, it proves that the patent can really create value; for example, patent pledge financing has emerged in recent years An effective way of realizing a patent, so a patent that can be pledged for financing is also considered to be of high value.
Remove the "patent bubble" and phase out patent grant funding
Since 2011, the number of patent applications in my country has consistently ranked first in the world.
Among them, the invention patents that truly reflect the gold content of technology are less than 1/3 of the total.
Utility model and appearance design patents are the majority, and there are fewer patents that achieve greater economic benefits in transformation and application. Although the number of applications is the first, my country is only a large patent country rather than a powerful country.
In order to guide patent applications to "close" to more valuable invention patents, Shanghai revised the "Patent Funding Measures" in 2018, focusing on improving patent applications that are "large but not good", the ability to use patents is low, and the scope of domestic patent funding is wide. Insufficient support for enterprises’ overseas patent layout and other issues, increase support for high-quality patents, PCT international patent applications and foreign authorized patents, guide market innovation entities to improve patent quality, strengthen patent transformation and application, and further strengthen the promotion of high-quality patents. Policy orientation of patent output.
In the future, this funding policy will be further "tightened."
Zhang Yongzhong revealed that the State Intellectual Property Office has made it clear that patent grant funding will be completely cancelled by 2025. Before that, Shanghai will take the lead in gradually reducing the funding ratio to allow this policy to be implemented steadily.
This year, Shanghai will complete the revision of a new round of support policies in accordance with the requirements of the State Intellectual Property Office.
"Cancellation of authorization and funding will further remove the'patent bubble' and return intellectual property rights to the essence, but it will not have an impact on companies that are truly willing and capable of innovation." Shan Xiaoguang analyzed that at present, one in Shanghai The amount of funding that can be obtained for an invention patent that is maintained for more than three years is about 4,000 yuan, and the amount of a high-value patent transfer or license can reach hundreds of thousands, millions or more.
In other words, if a patent can be actually used, the benefits it generates are far greater than the money obtained through subsidies, and this precisely reflects the proper meaning of innovation-driven.
Set up a special plan to generate high-value invention patents from the source
Adding the “high-value” indicator, which is a limited condition, can better reflect a city's innovative policy source function, reflect the “quality, structure, and benefit orientation”, and it will be more challenging to achieve.
According to reports, the Municipal Intellectual Property Office will set up a number of special plans to encourage enterprises to finance and use patent pledges, guide enterprises to apply for PCT patents, etc., and further transform the "patent stock" into high-value invention patents.
At the same time as converting the stock, we need to make a big increase.
Shan Xiaoguang said that in essence, "high value" tests the innovation ability of the main entity of the patent application. Only by focusing on the cultivation of innovation ability can a batch of high-value invention patents be generated from the source.
In fact, during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, Shanghai proposed two indicators related to technological innovation: in addition to "the number of high-value invention patents per 10,000 people," there is also "the R&D expenditure of the whole society is equivalent to the city's total production. Value (GDP) ratio”, these two items correspond to the “output side” and “input side” of innovation respectively.
In 2020, Shanghai’s R&D expenditure is equivalent to 4.1% of the city’s GDP, which is among the highest in comparison with other countries in the world.
During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, this indicator will reach 4.5% in 2025, which is almost twice the current average of EU countries. The orientation of high-intensity investment in the front-end and strengthening source innovation is very obvious.