Discussion on High Value Patent

For some time, "high-value patents" and related "improving patent quality" and "cultivating core patents" have become popular in the industry. Especially since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the policy deployment of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, as well as a series of documents issued by various localities and departments, all those involving intellectual property rights and innovation have put forward clear requirements for hot words such as "high-value patents. The State Intellectual Property Office will cultivate high-value patents and improve the quality of patents as one of the key tasks for deployment and implementation.

The origin of (I) high-value patents

The concept of "high-value patents" began with the Jiangsu Provincial Intellectual Property Office. As the State Intellectual Property Office launched the "implementation of standards" policy to promote intellectual property rights across the country, as a supporting package, the Jiangsu Provincial Intellectual Property Office has also begun to implement the related work of "cultivating high-value patents.2015In 2000, the Jiangsu Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial Government issued the "Opinions on Accelerating the Construction of a Strong Intellectual Property Province", which took "cultivating high-value patents" as the basic work for deployment, and clearly required2020In the province to build 100 "high-value patent cultivation demonstration center", ready to "leading enterprises+advantage discipline+The "trinity" strategy of "high-end service" has a demonstration-driven effect, and we look forward to the transition from "made in Jiangsu" to "made in Jiangsu".

(II) the meaning of high-value patents

Patents have instrumental and non-instrumental value. For enterprises, patents should be assets that can bring commercial value. Patents can bring economic benefits to enterprises, which is the tool value of patents. The non-instrumental value of patents is mainly reflected in the fact that patents can demonstrate the strength and influence of enterprises and can bring reputation and social status to inventors. There is no doubt that the main commercial value of a patent is reflected in its instrumental value.

The evaluation dimensions of high-value patents are as follows:

1.Technical value: Each patent contains a technical solution that can solve technical problems, but not every technical solution has practical application value. When there is a better alternative technology, the previously applied patent technology is easy to be eliminated or abandoned directly. However, this does not mean that high-value patents are all patents with high technological advancement. If there are some patented technologies with high technological advancement, it is difficult to implement them due to the lack of supporting technologies, and these patents are also difficult to call them high-value patents. patent. High-value patents are not limited to patents with high technical complexity, and simpler patents formed by technologies that are easy to be widely adopted may also become high-value patents. Therefore, the level of patent value does not depend on the advancement of technical solutions, technical difficulty or technical complexity. "Value" is a dynamic curve that can change at any time, and it is also a value formed by various complex factors after interlacing with each other. It needs to be combined with time, environment, implementation subject, implementation purpose, etc. to produce actual value.

2.Legal value: The core of patent right lies in the exclusiveness of patent, the patentee obtains monopoly income and realizes the value of patent by having the exclusive right of a certain region for a certain period of time. Therefore, the degree of legal protection of patent rights is a guarantee for a patented technology to realize its true value. Only a patent that has been baptized by litigation is a real "hard" patent, but a "hard" patent may not be equated with high value, nor can it completely prevent others from avoiding design. A "hard" patent is a necessary and insufficient condition for a high-value patent.

3.Market value: For businesses, the ability to generate economic benefits is directly driven by their ability to develop strategies to acquire and apply patent rights. The economic benefits that a patent can generate are directly related to its market value, and a patented technology with high market value must be a patented technology with both technical and legal value, which can be applied in the market at present or in the expected future and thus gain a dominant position, competitive advantage and/Or huge profits of the patent, this is the real sense of high market value patent. Market value can be divided into future market value and existing market value, and patents that are expected to be used in the future market are potentially high market value patents.

4.Strategic value: High strategic value patents that truly have a technical value foundation and legal value guarantee are mainly basic patents and core patents in a certain field, or clamp patents with combined value or strategic value placed around core patents in order to deal with competitors. For companies, these patents can either be used to attack and threaten competitors, or to build solid technical barriers, or as an important bargaining chip, or both. This is also the consensus of intellectual property management personnel of some well-known enterprises at home and abroad.

5.Economic value: In the existing market value of a patent, the directly convertible cash flow is the economic value directly measured by the patent. Patents of high economic value include, first, most of the patents of high market value, and secondly, other patents that reflect high prices in the course of patent trading and operation (e. g., patent pledge, equity acquisition, transfer license, etc.), such as reserve core patents with a view to the future market.

In short, a high-value patent should have the following conditions: (1) Its technical scheme has a high level and high technical content; (2) The writing quality of patent application documents is high, and the invention-creation is fully protected; (3) Meet the conditions for patent authorization, and the patent rights have good stability; (4) It has good market prospects at home and abroad, high market share of products, or good market control. Although it has not yet been transformed into real products, it is in order to enhance its market competitiveness.

How (III) Foster High-Value Patents

High-value patents necessarily correspond to high-quality creation. At the beginning of technology research and development and in the process of research and development, we must attach great importance to the use of patent information to find the starting point, focus and direction of research and development. High-quality creation is the source and basis for improving patent quality and cultivating high-value patents. Secondly, for some patent applications involving major technologies, we must carefully study, and write application documents after full communication between high-level patent agents and R & D personnel to ensure the quality of application documents. In addition, accurate long-term layout should be carried out. Due to the regional characteristics of patents, if a patent is to become a high-value patent, it is necessary to do a good job of patent layout at home and abroad from the level of market and strategic layout. All countries and regions do a good job in patent layout to maximize its value, so as to lay the foundation for the maximization of market competitiveness, which is also the goal of high-value patent cultivation.

High-value patents are like gold in the sand, their scarcity is inevitable, and their creation process is difficult. High-value patents, such as generals among soldiers, are the core. In the patent application, we must have the determination to turn some general value patents into high-value patents, so as to be invincible in the patent battlefield.