Activating idle patents to share innovation achievements (deep reading, turning institutional advantages into governance effectiveness)
Since the Third Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, all localities and departments have paid attention to starting from the needs of economic and social development, starting from the things around the people, and timely launched a batch of policy innovations with small incisions and quick results, which solved many worries in the field of people's livelihood. It enhances the people's sense of gain, happiness and security.
Reform is always on the way.
It is necessary to coordinate system reform and system operation, handle the relationship between top-level design and layered docking, do a good job of supporting the top, bottom, left, right, and all aspects, and pay attention to the coordinated advancement of various reforms, so that various reforms complement each other, a "chemical reaction" occurs, and the advantages of the system are used. into governance efficiency.
This edition will launch a series of reports today, focusing on how various localities and departments can further clear up the obstacles and difficulties, innovate to promote policy implementation, transform institutional awareness into governance level, and transform institutional advantages into governance efficiency.
--editor
How to use the "sleeping" patent?
As the patentee, Wu Zhenyu, a professor at the School of Mechanical and Automatic Control of Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, has been looking for answers.
Wu Zhenyu's invention patent is "a yarn carrier and feedback system suitable for three-dimensional braided yarn control", which is applied in the field of mechatronics engineering.
However, since the successful application in 2017, this patent has been "lying" in the laboratory for a long time and has become a "sleeping" idle patent.
Recently, things have finally turned around.
From June 1, 2021, the revised "Patent Law of the People's Republic of China" will come into effect. The Patent Law introduces a patent open license system, and clearly stipulates that "during the implementation of the open license, the patentee will be given a corresponding reduction in the annual patent fee paid. "According to the new patent law, Zhejiang explores and implements a special plan for patent transformation, improves the supply and demand connection channels for patent transformation, and strengthens the industrial application of patents.
According to the agreement on cooperation and consultation between the two parties signed by the State Intellectual Property Office and the Zhejiang Provincial Government, Zhejiang is the first to pilot the implementation of the patent open licensing system.
"According to this system, my patent can not only be activated, but can also be used in the upgrading of enterprise equipment. The efforts in the early stage of research and development have not been in vain." Co., Ltd. in-depth docking technical content.
Open license to promote the transformation of scientific and technological achievements
"After the successful application of the invention patent, I also wanted to transform the results, but I couldn't find a suitable company for a long time." Later, Wu Zhenyu was busy with teaching, and the patent was "shelved". "For a university patentee like me, The patent open licensing system has really helped a lot.”
Patent open license refers to a form of license in which the patentee issues an offer through the patent management department, and the potential licensee can implement its patented technology once the offer is accepted.
The patent open licensing system can promote information docking, and the patent management department's licensing information announcement builds a bridge of information communication between licensors and licensees; it can also improve negotiation efficiency, and both suppliers and buyers can reach licensing in a simple way, eliminating the need for complicated The negotiation link can also reduce the transaction risk. Through the license information disclosure and dispute mediation mechanism, the licensee can fully understand the license conditions and other related situations in advance.
In August 2021, the Zhejiang Provincial Market Supervision Bureau issued a notice to solicit patents that can implement open licenses.
As of the end of last year, a total of 379 patents have been received from 14 universities and research institutes in Zhejiang Province, all of which have been screened to meet the conditions for open licenses. At present, universities and institutes have signed 118 patent transformation projects with enterprises.
The reporter learned that the above-mentioned patent list is published on the "Zhejiang Intellectual Property Online" platform, and enterprises can directly log in to view the relevant information.
Soon, Huzhou Modern Textile Machinery Co., Ltd. discovered Wu Zhenyu's patent and got in touch with him.
"The company's existing equipment can only weave flat fabrics with a thickness of 2 to 3 mm. Over the years, we have been developing new equipment, but have not achieved breakthroughs." Ni Zhiqi, the company's head, said, "After preliminary docking, Professor Wu's patent The device involved can directly replace the warp creels of existing looms, effectively solving the problems we faced.”
The two parties hit it off and are now using this patent to jointly produce a prototype.
"According to estimates, the patent is expected to bring more than 30% increase in the annual output value of the company." Wu Zhenyu felt satisfied when he saw that his patent achievements were expected to be transformed.
Build bridges, smooth patent information docking
The "2020 China Patent Survey Report" shows that the industrialization rate of valid invention patents in my country in 2020 is 34.7%, of which 44.9% are for enterprises, 11.3% for scientific research units, and 3.8% for universities.
"It can be seen that there is a significant gap between universities and enterprises in the industrialization rate of effective patents." said Lin Min, director of the Intellectual Property Application Promotion Division of Zhejiang Provincial Market Supervision Bureau, "Many valuable invention patents in universities are useless, However, small, medium and micro enterprises that have patent use needs lack effective cooperation paths."
In this regard, Wu Zhenyu also felt deeply.
"It is not easy to convert a patent from paper into a product." Wu Zhenyu said, "Patent holders in universities and research institutes often do not directly contact the market, lack the ability to operate patents, and have high negotiating costs, making it difficult to convert many patents. The value cannot be fully realized.”
Yang Xiaogang, director of the Industrial Technology Center of Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, said frankly that universities lack funds and professional support for patent pledge and capitalization operations, making it difficult to carry out intermediate experiments, which are the only way to industrialize scientific and technological achievements.
"Because of this, the 'last mile' of patent achievement transformation is not smooth." Yang Xiaogang said.
Many SMEs feel the same way.
An owner of a small and medium-sized enterprise in Hangzhou said: "In order to break through the difficulties of production technology, scientific research guidance from universities is very important. However, the information on the supply and demand sides of patents is asymmetric. Even if there are suitable patent inventions, it is difficult for us to obtain authorization."
Since Zhejiang explored the implementation of open patent licensing, it has effectively solved the corresponding problems.
More and more "sleeping" patents in the hands of researchers in universities and research institutes are being awakened and active in the production front line of small, medium and micro enterprises.
Two-way incentives, continuous improvement of supporting measures
After the "sleeping" idle patents are awakened, how can they be better transformed into real productivity?
It is understood that Zhejiang implements preferential policies, and the first batch of 379 open license patents will not charge enterprises any license fees during the license period.
The single license period of a patent starts from 1 year and can be as long as 5 years, so as to ensure that the enterprise has sufficient time to invest in the secondary research and development of the patent and product testing, and finally form a market-oriented product.
"After the free open license expires, follow-up cooperation will be carried out according to the specific situation. For example, Zhejiang University stipulates that the original free license transferee can apply for a continued free license, and enjoy priority paid transfer rights under the same conditions." Lin Min said, In order to support universities and research institutes to export patents, universities and research institutes will receive an annual reward of no more than 500,000 yuan after generating economic benefits and meeting certain standards; in order to support the introduction of patents by small, medium and micro enterprises, and promote the transformation to produce larger If it is economical, it will receive a reward of up to 1 million yuan after reaching a certain standard.
"In the long run, free and open licensing is conducive to the development of universities' scientific research achievements to empower the industry, and to better play the role of universities in serving the society." In Yang Xiaogang's view, such an approach can also reduce the difficulty of licensing negotiations and reduce the cost of patent transformation and application in universities. , to promote the innovation and development of more small, medium and micro enterprises.
"As a pilot project, there are still many areas for improvement, such as whether there is a unified system guarantee to provide continuous guidance and support for enterprise development after the authorization period expires, and the incentive policies for colleges and universities also need to be further improved. ” said Gu Wenhai, deputy director of the Zhejiang Provincial Market Supervision Bureau, “Next, we will also promote the establishment of public patent pools by service organizations such as industrial intellectual property alliances and industry associations, to undertake free and open license patents, and to promote the concentration of patents in small, medium and micro enterprises. It is widely promoted and deepened in the industrial parks, so as to benefit the majority of small, medium and micro enterprises to the greatest extent.”