1, Monitoring and Analysis of Legal Data in Patent Literature
By monitoring and analyzing the legal data in competitors' patent documents, we can grasp the patent status of patented products and technologies owned by competitors. For example, patent affairs reported through the patent bulletin (including rejection, withdrawal and revocation of patent applications, etc.). ), you can know whether the patent applied by competitors is authorized, and whether the authorized patent is terminated, deemed withdrawn or declared invalid for various reasons.
Through the description items in the published patent specification, including the filing date, priority date, patent type, country, priority application country, designated country or selected country in the international patent (PCT or EP) application, we can grasp the effective protection period and geographical scope of the patent authorized by competitors. Once it is known that the patent right of a competitor's patent has expired, the competitor can use the patented technology of the competitor for his own use. Perhaps the most typical example is the research of NiTi memory alloy by Japanese companies. Because the United States was the first to master the patent of the most basic technology of NiTi memory alloy, many Japanese companies had to quietly conduct research for nearly 20 years, and only when the American patent expired did they scramble to win the application patent of NiTi memory alloy.
2. Monitor and analyze the unauthorized open patents of competitors.
By monitoring and analyzing the specifications and claims of unauthorized patents published by competitors, we strive to find out which patents are not granted and which do not meet the requirements of the patent law, and provide proof to the patent examination department in time to set obstacles for the final authorization of patent applications. Generally speaking, Patent examiners attaches great importance to public opinions. If there are objections from the public in the actual trial procedure of a patent, and the examiner is provided with comparative documents or facts that may deny the patentability of the patent application, then the process of patent authorization will be blocked. For example,
Company n applied for a patent for ink. After the applicant responded to the first notice of examination opinions of the patent office examiner, the examiner thought that the patent application basically complied with the provisions of the patent law of China, and pointed out in the second notice of examination opinions sent to the applicant that the patent application document was expected to be authorized with only a small amount of text modification. At this time, Company B, as a competitor, analyzed the description of the patent application of Company N and showed the examiner the comparative documents, which proved that the patent application lacked creativity. Considering the public's opinions, the examiner put forward the possibility that the patent application was not authorized because of its lack of creativity compared with the comparative literature in the third examination opinion. The candidate answered rationally again and was finally rejected by the examiner. Although the applicant has requested reexamination from the Patent Reexamination Board, the prospect of authorization is still dim.
3. Analyze and utilize the patent documents authorized by competitors.
The authorized patent not only determines its legal protection status, but also reflects the possibility of its implementation. So on the one hand, we analyze the technical content of patents authorized by competitors, and judge whether to improve our existing patent technology or take our existing patent as a part or component, so that we can sell or transfer our patents to competitors. On the other hand, it is necessary to analyze the scope of competitors' patent claims, find out their loopholes, break through their patent network defense, apply for new patents, and then occupy the market. For example, Li Sen Company of Nankai University, based on the analysis of a large number of existing patent claims in Japan, the United States and other countries, developed and synthesized a new type of Ni-MH electrode material by using elements outside the scope of existing patent protection, obtained a series of patents for new-type Ni-MH electrode materials at home and abroad, and occupied the domestic and international market for new-type Ni-MH electrode materials.
In addition, some competitors' patents with too wide claims, such as those of Markush in chemical patent applications, are analyzed, and a certain technical scheme is selected. Through experiments, unexpected technical effects are achieved, so that one's invention is creative, thus breaking through the patent blockade of competitors and obtaining one's own patent right.
4. Make regular statistical analysis of all patents owned by competitors.
Through regular statistical analysis and ranking of all patents owned by competitors, we can get the data of competitors' technological development and business strategy, from which we can gradually judge competitors' research and development priorities, technical policies and development directions, and evaluate their strength. For example, a company in China sorted out and statistically analyzed the patents published by Japan Industrial Technology Research Institute in a certain period, and found that the research and development work of the institute focused on solving the measurement and testing methods of basic parts and materials.
In addition, by analyzing the proportion of patent application and authorization of competitors, we can examine the maturity of their technological development; Judging the economic strength of competitors by analyzing the ratio of domestic patents to foreign patents; By analyzing the number of invention patents and utility model patents owned by competitors, we can determine their technical level and evaluate their technical and economic strength.
5. Regularly analyze the patent status of this industry.
Taking the number of patents of a certain technology category in this industry as the ordinate and the year as the abscissa, we can see the development of this category of technology in various stages of this industry; Taking the number of patents in various technical categories in a certain period or a certain year as the ordinate and the technical classification as the abscissa, we can judge the technical hotspots in this industry in a certain period; By comparing the total number of patents of competitors in a certain technology category, we can initially confirm who is the most powerful competitor in this industry. The following table lists the number of patents of microwave ovens owned by major manufacturers in the world, from which it can be seen that the main competitors of global microwave oven technology are Panasonic, Toshiba, Hitachi, Sharp and Sanyo in Japan, followed by Venus and Samsung in South Korea.
6. Pay close attention to the patent application trend of competitors.
The above mainly introduces several methods of how to analyze and use the patent literature information disclosed by competitors. However, because most countries in the world adopt the principle of first application, according to this law, whoever applies for the same invention first may obtain the patent right and then occupy the market. There are countless examples of this. The patent of artificial alizarin of Krupp Company of Germany was filed one day earlier than that of the UK, thus obtaining the patent right in the UK. German artificial alizarin products enter the British market. For another example, A·G· Bell applied to the US Patent Office for a telephone patent only 1 hour earlier than E Gray, which made Jambers the father of telephone invention. As Sun Tzu said, "Know yourself and know yourself, and you will win every battle."
It can be seen that it is very important for enterprises to collect patent technology information that competitors are developing and closely monitor the patent application trends of competitors. The patent application trends of competitors are often confidential and have zero information. It is much more difficult to collect this kind of information than to collect public patent literature information, so enterprise leaders should arrange competent information personnel to obtain this kind of information by all means but legally.