Four types of behavioral awareness to avoid in patent applications

Intellectual property rights are the core competitiveness of a company. More and more companies have begun to attach importance to intellectual property rights and attach great importance to the planning of patent strategies. The company reminds them that there are several types of behavioral misunderstandings in the patent application process that should be avoided:

Misconception 1: Independent research and development has independent intellectual property rights Although a company invests a lot of manpower and material resources in developing new technologies and new products, if it does not get legal confirmation within the first time, it is actually the first autonomy. What is developed does not mean that it owns the technology.

The patent law of our country implements the “preliminary application system”. Whoever has inventions, novelty, and practical inventions will apply first, and who will grant the patent. A patent is a monopoly right. If the technical results independently developed by a company are not applied for, it will not be recognized and protected by law. Therefore, if a developer does not apply in time and is first applied for and granted a patent right by others, the developer cannot pursue the legal responsibility of others.

Misunderstanding 2: Applying for a patent will lead to the existence of an open-ended technical know-how for technology indefinitely, which will enable the technology to bring economic benefits to the company all the time, and will always be at a competitive advantage, thus monopolizing the market. This is why it is favored by some companies.

Although holders of technical secrets can prevent others from using their technical secrets in an improper way, such as stealing other people’s technical secrets, in violation of confidentiality terms, and revealing technical secrets to others. However, holders of technical secrets do not have the right to stop others from discovering or obtaining technical secrets through legitimate channels; others can also discover their technical secrets through their own independent research, or learn their technical secrets by analyzing their products. Allowed. Once others have developed the same technology and applied for a patent, there will be no intellectual property rights for technical secrets, and they will be passive both technically and on the market.

Misunderstanding 3: The time for applying for a patent is inaccurate, and the basis for a patent application that is not timely is not a product that already exists on the market, nor is it necessarily a product that has already been formed. As long as there are practical ideas, you can proceed to apply for a patent.

After the production scale of the product is applied for a patent, due to the time difference, the consequence is that the patent for the technology has already become a priority; even if you are lucky enough to obtain authorization, the patent is in an unstable state. At this point, if any infringement is discovered and a lawsuit is filed, the infringer will defend the patent on the day the patent application was filed.

Some companies in the later development of the product, with new improvements but no longer apply for a patent, the consequences of this error is no different from not applying for a patent. Because when others have improved the product and applied for a patent, it will in turn restrict the upgrading of the original patentee's product. This will cause the original patentee to inadvertently become an infringer. At this point, the original patentee lost his intellectual property rights.

Myth #4: Lack of long-term planning for patent applications Although more companies are now paying attention to patent applications, there is a lack of strategic planning for patent applications. It is very important for companies to implement a patent strategy in a planned way.

First, you can avoid wasting time and effort. Some companies have applied for a large number of patents without purpose, resulting in a low authorization rate and a large amount of waste patents, wasting time and effort. Second, it can break through the patent envelopment of foreign companies. A company should have a very clear understanding of the basic patent conditions and peripheral patent conditions in its own industry. Only in this way can we find technical breakthroughs, exclude other people's patent obstacles, establish its own patent advantages, and win market competition.