Utility model patent, you deserve it

Since the beginning of this year, the value of utility model patents has gradually become prominent in patent infringement disputes. This year4In January, Gree Electric filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Oaks series of products, ruling Oaks to compensate Gree Electric.4600The ruling set a new record for patent infringement compensation in the home appliance industry. The patent infringed by Oaks this time is a utility model patent called "an indoor unit of an air conditioner", which fully reflects the characteristics of the utility model patent that "small inventions become big kills. This year5In January, in the war of sharing charging treasure, caller technology also won the lawsuit by virtue of utility model patent.

For a long time, utility model patents have always been an important part of China's patent system. They have the advantages of short review cycle, convenient procedures, low cost, and lower creative requirements than invention patents. In terms of protection, they have the same advantages as invention patents., Make it a sharp weapon for enterprises to participate in market competition. In the practice of enterprise patents, there are also continuous use of utility model patent protection to maintain the normal operation of enterprises, and get a higher amount of compensation in the case.

However, under the current situation that the patent protection environment continues to improve, utility model patents have not achieved good results in safeguarding their rights, mainly in two aspects: first, relatively few obligees choose to claim their rights with utility model patents; second, for those who claim their rights with utility model patents, the success rate is less40%, significantly lower than the success rate of invention patents and design patents.

There are many reasons for the poor effectiveness of the current utility model patent rights protection. First, the patent right of utility model is unstable and invalid. In patent infringement disputes that claim rights in utility model patents, there are many cases in which the patent is invalid or the lawsuit is rejected or withdrawn for fear of being declared invalid. Second, the overall quality of utility model patents is low, including low technical content and low degree of innovation, which leads to low stability; many enterprises do not pay enough attention to utility model patent applications, resulting in low quality of application documents, and the scope of protection can not cover competitors' products, resulting in losing the lawsuit.

In the face of this era of rapid development of science and technology, utility model patents have their own unique advantages over invention patents, and enterprises should make greater efforts to apply and layout. The utility model relative to the invention is mainly reflected in the following aspects: (1) Utility models are more easily and quickly patented. In an era of rapid technological development, easier and faster access to power is even more advantageous than the protection term field, and more able to adapt to rapid product iteration. (2) has a broader space to play a role. In the high-tech field and the field of daily life, there are many micro-innovations, which provide an excellent soil for utility model patents to play a role. The layout of utility model patents in the high-tech field is more likely to play a role. effect. (3) The creative requirements of utility models are lower than those of invention patents, and the stability of high-quality utility model patents is higher, so the difficulty of invalid utility model patents is greater than that of invention patents. (4) Easy to defend rights, conducive to the realization of the business objectives of enterprise market competition.

Through the successful case of Gree v. Oaks patent infringement and other utility model rights protection cases, enterprises should pay more attention to the advantages of utility model patents when making patent layout. In addition, enterprises need to pay attention to micro-innovation in the product field, layout of utility model patents, improve the quality of utility model patents, including the quality of product research and development, the quality of application documents and the quality of patent defense, accurately determine the scope of protection of claims, so that patents and technical contributions are more matched.