The low quality of patents, "supporting the facade" with quantity, and poor conversion channels have become prominent problems in the patent field.

  Patent Law Amendment Law Boosts my country's Patent from Multi to Strong

  Author: reporter Liu Huadong

  【French Eye View】

  The epidemic did not hinder the enthusiasm of enterprises for independent innovation. In the first half of this year, there were 683,000 invention patent applications in my country, and a total of 217,000 invention patents were authorized. As of the end of June this year, the effective amount of invention patents in my country (excluding Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan) was 1.996 million, with 14.3 invention patents per 10,000 people. This is the patent statistics for the first half of the year notified by the State Intellectual Property Office on July 9.

  Strengthening the protection of intellectual property in accordance with the law and making better use of the key role of intellectual property as a national strategic resource for development and a core element of international competitiveness has become an intrinsic need to deeply implement innovation-driven development strategies and promote high-quality development. Recently, on the occasion of the second review of the draft amendments to the Patent Law, members of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress started to discuss outstanding issues in the field of patents in my country, and solved the problem that my country has more patents than strong ones.

 Towards a patent power, focusing on improving patent quality

  According to data released by the State Intellectual Property Office, in the first half of the year, the number of applications for three types of domestic patents (invention patents, utility model patents, and design patents) was 2.195 million.

  The number of patent applications exceeds one million each year and increases year after year, and the number of patent authorizations also rises. Since 2011, my country has become the world's largest patent country. At the end of 2019, Francis Gurry, Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization, commented: "China's intellectual property development is an amazing story and a very remarkable journey, and we should admit it."

  There is a halo above the world's first patent power, but I have to admit that my country is not a patent power. The proportion of invention patents with the highest gold content is not high, and key technologies and core areas are often "stuck". How to improve the quality of patents has become the subject of much discussion in the revision of the patent law.

  Zhu Mingchun, member of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, said that at present, local governments at all levels have low thresholds for subsidizing patent application fees and encourage a clear number-oriented approach, while the guidance and incentives for improving patent quality and achievement conversion are not obvious. "Of course, we are still "catch up" in general, and only partly have "parallel running" and "leading". Zhu Mingchun suggested that more work should be done to encourage quality improvement and achievement transformation.

  "The key industries and core technology areas have a low patent share and short patent maintenance time, which may hinder Chinese enterprises from participating in competition and promoting industrial transformation and upgrading." Du Yubo, member of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, proposed to further improve China's patent authorization in this amendment Improve the quality of patents by means of the power confirmation system.

Intermediary agent "savage growth", it is time to "pruning"

  Following the slogan "The patent system is fuelling the fire of genius", the reporter clicked into a patent agency website. The invention patent application fee of 185 yuan, the website shows that the agency fee is more than 5,000 yuan. If it is a unit application, it is from 6,560 yuan.

  Open the China Patent Electronic Application Network. There are 9 processes for electronic application, and the content is tedious. To apply for a patent, you need to fill in the form according to the format, which takes a lot of time and effort. As a result, many researchers choose to ask intermediaries and agencies to apply.

  Wu Ritu, a member of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, found that the administrative fees and agency fees and intermediary fees charged by patent applications have problems with many charging items, high charging standards, and irregular charging behaviors. "Now in some patent application procedures, agency and intermediary have become mandatory links. This is extremely abnormal behavior. In addition, in the total cost of patent applications, the agency fee exceeds the application fee, which should not be."

  Wang Ling, deputy director of the Standing Committee of the Hubei Provincial People’s Congress, also mentioned that nowadays there are “specialized institutions and individuals who keep calling and tracking around professors and professionals all day and night, and need to package and obtain patents after getting information.” This move disrupted the normal order of scientific research and innovation to some extent.

  In response to this, some members of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress suggested that in the draft amendments to the Patent Law, the examination, management, and supervision of the qualifications of patent intermediaries should be strengthened, and patent agencies should be cleaned up and rectified.

Invention ≠ certificate, be wary of "patent for patent"

  The annual audit work report for 2019 shows that among the 461,400 valid invention patents inspected by universities and research institutes, only 38,800 have been transferred or licensed, and most of the patents are idle or directly abandoned.

  The low conversion utilization rate is a "hidden word" in the field of intellectual property. According to data from the State Intellectual Property Office, the effective domestic patent licensing rate is 6.1% in 2019. In addition, the patent duration is short and the abandonment rate remains high.

  "Now the number of patents is increasing rapidly, especially for utility model patents. After many patent applications, even after the patent is granted, the patent applicants give up directly." Li Jinghai, member of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, believes that this means "these The patent itself is useless, which is also the reason for the low patent transfer rate in China."

  The examiner spent a lot of energy, and the patentee spent a lot of money, but as a result, he gave up just after the authorization. Why is this so? Li Jinghai said frankly: "Like publishing articles, applicants only pursue quantity. Some institutions evaluate researchers based on the number of patent applications."

  Some companies use patent applications as an important bargaining chip to improve the valuation of listed companies’ intellectual property; some colleges or scientific research institutions rely on patent applications to support the facade; some individuals use patents as a bargaining chip for evaluation of professional titles, gaining fame and fortune through patents... Yin Fanglong, a member of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, also said: "Millions of patents are applied every year, some are not invented for practical use, but patented for patents." In response to these circumstances, he suggested strict patent examination and approval, and those who have no name and no value. The so-called inventions are kept out of patents, improving the actual gold content and practicality of patents.

  "Patents are not only obtained a certificate, placed in a patent knowledge base, but actually create value for mankind and benefit mankind." Lu Shiming, member of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, said: "We have many sounds that look good Even unique patents for inventions, but they are always high on the ground and can't be dropped. They have become a'talk on paper'. The state and the government should increase their efforts to strongly stimulate the transformation of patent performance."

 "Blessing" the law to help patents go from the laboratory to the market

  There has always been a gap between the scientific and technological achievements and industrialization known as the "valley of death", which hinders the transformation of scientific and technological achievements into actual productivity.

  Technologists are good at the front-end work of R&D, and the follow-up work of product development and industrial production is also very heavy, but they are not suitable for intervention; and companies have the instinct to pursue profit maximization and are reluctant to bear many risks of the application of scientific and technological achievements, which results in In a hollow area where scientific research achievements are transformed, on the road from the laboratory to the market, the achievements buried in the "death valley" are by no means few.

  Why is the transformation efficiency of a large number of innovations very low, and researchers are still reluctant to put the scientific and technological achievements into intermediary institutions for incubation and development? "Because once let go, after two or three links, his intellectual property will be lost." National People's Congress representative Huang Zhengren said a Central Plains Committee. "There are many scientific and technological achievements in the "death valley". One of the reasons is that the technical secrets of these inventions are not protected. As the owner of the patent, the "mother" of the technical secrets is reluctant to let his children go, only Can be nurtured slowly from beginning to end and slowly industrialized."

  How to help patent achievements go from the laboratory to the market and protect the transformation of patents? The members of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress have recruited in the revision of the Patent Law-

  Further increase the compensation for infringement of patent rights. The current law provides low damages for infringement of patent rights, trademark rights, and other intellectual property rights. Many companies often win lawsuits and lose money. Both their enthusiasm for innovation and rights protection have been hit.

  Crack down on “indirect infringement” of patents and strengthen the protection of innovation subjects. At present, the Patent Law only stipulates direct patent infringement. In reality, there are still a lot of "side-swapping" behaviors that engage in infringement and profit-making for certain important parts of the patented technical solution.

  Further strengthen the joint punishment for dishonesty. In November 2018, the National Development and Reform Commission, the People’s Bank of China, and the State Intellectual Property Office and other departments jointly issued the “Memorandum of Cooperation on Joint Disciplinary Measures for Serious Distrust in the Field of Intellectual Property (Patent)”, which classified severe distrust in the six categories of intellectual property. The behavior is included in the scope of joint punishment. In the future, it should be clarified that persons with serious untrustworthiness in the field of intellectual property patents are restricted in financial activities, social security, certification support, scientific research and recruitment, and consumer behaviors that are not necessary for life and work.

  (Reporter Liu Huadong)