Patents are not brand assets.

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) recently said that all international patent applications submitted through the organization last year came from Asia, among which Huawei submitted 5,405 patent applications, ranking first in the world, setting a record for the number of international patent applications submitted by a company in WIPO history.

While cheering for Huawei, it is necessary to understand the relationship between patents and brand equity.

Patent, literally, refers to the exclusive right. In fact, it is a protected exclusive right owned by the creator of an invention.

In modern times, patents are generally documents issued by government agencies or regional organizations representing several countries according to their applications. This document records the contents of the invention and creation, and within a certain period of time (the patent protection period is generally 20 years for the invention patent, utility model patent and design patent 10 year). ) has produced a legal state-that is, under normal circumstances, others can only implement patented inventions with the permission of the patentee.

In China, there are three kinds of patents: inventions, utility models and designs. In some developed countries, it is divided into invention patents and design patents.

Brand equity is an important concept in the field of marketing research and practice in the 1980s. It is a series of assets and liabilities associated with brands, brand names and signs, which can increase or decrease the value of products or services sold by enterprises.

After the 1990s, David Ackell (the originator of brand equity), Jean Noel Kapfer, kevin lane keller and others gradually put forward and improved the concept of consumer-based brand rights CBBE (customer-based-brand-equity).

In China, the term "brand equity" is usually used to refer to brand equity.

The "five-star" conceptual model of David Aaker brand equity holds that:

Brand equity mainly includes five aspects, namely brand loyalty, brand awareness, brand recognition, brand association and other proprietary assets (such as trademarks, patents, channel relationships, etc.). ) to provide value to consumers and enterprises in various ways.

With the development of brand equity management, brand equity now includes not only the above aspects, but also brand premium ability and brand profitability.

In the pyramid of brand assets, brand loyalty and brand premium ability are two assets that can ultimately bring huge profits to brand owners and gain more market share.

Brand loyalty and brand premium ability belong to the result brand assets, which are the products of brand cognition, recognition and brand association.

Therefore, patents belong to the category of brand assets, and they are proprietary assets that can bring rights and interests to brands.