First, establish? Apply in advance? 、? Apply before products and advertisements? Awareness of intellectual property protection
So-called? Apply in advance? Is it because all major countries in the world adopt the system of deciding who owns the patent right according to the time of application, so the earlier the application, the greater the possibility of protection. As the developers and owners of innovative achievements, they should apply for patent protection in time to avoid others? Get there first? .
So-called? Apply before products and advertisements? That is, the date of patent application should be before product marketization and advertising, so as to avoid losing novelty due to premature disclosure; In reality, cases that only focus on the market and ignore protection emerge one after another, especially in the era of mobile Internet. Products were promoted simply and quickly through WeChat, but unexpectedly they could not be protected because of the promotion of ideas and technologies.
Second, choose a reasonable protection method according to the characteristics of technical content.
After the formation of technological achievements, choosing appropriate protection methods is related to the survival and long-term development of enterprises; Patents are not the only way to protect technological achievements. Besides, there are trade secrets and copyrights, layout design and so on. , and each has its own protection characteristics; In short, trade secrets are preferred for technical solutions suitable for protection by trade secrets; If it is difficult to protect trade secrets, choose patent protection; For those that can be protected by copyright at the same time, such as software products and designs. , while retaining the record of copyright creation or copyright registration, adopt double protection.
Third, attach importance to international protection of patents.
Regionality is an important feature of intellectual property protection. In addition to copyright, patents, trademarks and other rights can only be protected in different countries after application for approval. As far as patent application is concerned, it is initially limited by the market, capital and vision, and the vision is usually limited to the domestic market. However, there are also hidden dangers here. Once the products are sold abroad, it is found that the priority period has been missed when applying for patents abroad, which leads to the obstruction of foreign market development and regrets. The solution lies in building this awareness first. There is no such thing as the whole world being protected? World patent? ; Secondly, whether the forecast of product sales will open up overseas markets; Furthermore, for inventions and utility models, before the expiration of 12 months (before the expiration of 6 months of appearance), it is the final evaluation period to determine whether to apply for overseas patent protection, and direct application or PCT application is adopted according to the situation.
Fourth, pay attention to the quality of patent writing.
This seems to be a cliche, or a matter of course for people who are new to patents, but in reality, because of the poor quality of patent writing, there is no patent to protect technology at all, so they bowed their heads. It is not easy to write a good patent. The domestic patent agency industry is pushing down the price, which leads to the low quality of writing. Open secrets? In order to ensure the patent quality, foreign patent agents only write a few patent applications a year, which is no joke.
Because of the different purposes of domestic patent applications, the author suggests that they be treated differently. For the technical scheme that needs to protect its substantive technical content, especially the core technology and main products, we should focus on its writing quality, give examples as much as possible, and make an upper-level summary. It is best to write on the basis of preliminary search, and the claims should be carefully selected, and the scope of protection should be cherished as much as possible. For those who only seek authorization but not protection, it is another matter.
5. The value of patent is not proportional to the technical difficulty. Don't underestimate it? Small creation?
Is it easy for technicians to fall into it? The more complex the technology, the more worthy of protection and the greater the value? In reality, the misunderstanding is not completely established, because the value of patent is related to the popularity and value of patented products, and has nothing to do with the complexity of technology; In addition, from the legal point of view, as long as the minimum threshold of novelty and creativity is met, the patentability standard can be reached, and legal protection should be treated equally.
So-called? The authorities are fascinated by the beholder? Patent mining can't rely solely on technicians, but should turn to patent agents to collect and protect those technical contents that seem ordinary in technology, but are widely used and effective. As everyone knows, these are the essence of patents and can really play a role? Four pounds? Let competitors avoid it and realize the value of the obligee? King of patents? .
Six, clever use of patent application disclosure period
Domestic start-ups, unfamiliar with patent application mechanism, agency? A case study of Japanese mathematics? It is difficult to fully explain. About invention patents? Open period? Generally speaking, only a few applicants can really understand the purpose of its establishment. Why is there a public holiday of 18 months? The intention is to give the applicant enough time to consider whether to conduct an open and substantive examination, that is, whether it needs to be withdrawn because of further improvement of technology, and then apply on the basis of claiming priority; Whether it is meaningless and valuable to apply for patent protection with the changes of products and markets, give up the application and take the initiative to withdraw it; Whether it is more appropriate to protect trade secrets and withdraw them in time; Whether it is not necessary to apply for substantive examination as long as it is open.
Therefore, we suggest that those who are eager to get authorization can apply for publicity in advance and request substantive examination in advance in order to get authorization as soon as possible; If the technology is not fully mature, but you are worried that other applicants will apply first, you can make a decision without making it public or asking for substantive examination in advance, and then make a decision when the above situation is clear.
Seven, develop its application patents around the core patents.
Start-ups all start from technology, and their patent applications are often their core patents. It is of course important to protect the core patented technology, but once the core patented technology is made public, if the application technology around the core technology has not been explored clearly, it will leave a gap for competitors; What's more, even if the owner of the core patent extended the development of its peripheral patent, he was preempted by others because he neglected to apply for the patent, which further restricted the core patentee from selling its technical application products.
Therefore, for start-ups, first, we should pay attention to the application technology research and development of core technologies; Second, we should also pay attention to the patent protection of applied technology.
Eight, pay attention to the use of patents, so that patents can play a role.
It is not easy to obtain a patent, which is based on the efforts and wisdom of technicians and the investment of enterprises. After being authorized, it is necessary to pay the annual fee in time to maintain its legal effect. Therefore, if patents are not allowed to exert their value, they will become a burden for enterprises, even negative assets.
There are many ways to play the value of patents: first, the existence of patents is the embodiment of the R&D strength of enterprises, which can promote the sales of products and obtain relevant honors and support; Secondly, this patent defines the scope of its rights in this technical field. Those who have users, or get permission, or take detours, these are static applications. To give full play to the value of patents, it is more important to actively seek ways to operate patents. Start-ups can promote them from the following aspects:
First, pay close attention to the product field, actively crack down on infringers, obtain compensation or reach a license agreement;
The second is to block competitors from the source, pay attention to advertisements and exhibitions, and find infringement clues to actively protect rights;
Third, should we combine our own patents or other people's patents? Patent pool? , become an insurmountable obstacle for other peers, thus collecting license fees;
The fourth is to raise the patent to the standard and become the necessary patent of product standard, so as to obtain greater and wider patent license income; Fifth, apply for various government subsidies in time, reduce the cost of patent application, and promote patent application with the help of state power.
The above items are only the author's income, and it is inevitable to generalize, but they are also the focus problems that start-ups often encounter and cannot avoid. If start-ups attach importance to them, I believe it can help them take fewer detours and fall into fewer traps.