The effectiveness of China National Intellectual Property Administration’s work makes more existing patents ＂rush＂ to new quality productivity! China comprehensively promotes the implementation of pat

Another institutional innovation of patent transformation and application has been comprehensively promoted!

On June 1, 2021, the newly revised patent law was implemented, and the patent open licensing system was added. This system is conducive to the realization of "one-to-many" patent licensing, reducing institutional transaction costs, improving the efficiency of patent transformation, and opening up the "last mile" of the transformation of scientific and technological achievements into new quality productivity. With the newly revised Detailed Rules for the Implementation of the Patent Law of People’s Republic of China (PRC) officially implemented on January 20th, 2024, the patent open licensing system has been fully implemented. The patentee voluntarily submits a patent opening license statement, and the patent license fee is clearly marked, which is "widely announced" to the whole society by the patent administrative department of the State Council. Any unit or individual can obtain an implementation license by notifying the patentee in writing and paying according to the marked price, and all licensees are treated equally.

Recently, China National Intellectual Property Administration issued a notice on comprehensively promoting the implementation of the patent open licensing system (hereinafter referred to as the notice) and the Measures for the Mediation of Disputes in the Implementation of Patent Open Licensing (for Trial Implementation) (hereinafter referred to as the "Working Measures") and other documents to standardize related work and further promote the implementation of the patent open licensing system.

Open license to build a patent docking bridge

"In just half a year, this patent has created an economic value of nearly 10 million yuan for us!" Hu Chenguang, general manager of Mingji Erffa Intelligent Industrial Technology (Dalian) Co., Ltd. told the reporter. This small and medium-sized enterprise located in Dalian, Liaoning Province, is committed to developing industrial robot automation technology and equipment. At the end of last year, Hu Chenguang found in the local trading center that Dalian University’s open license patent "an improved Smith predictive control method based on CRNs" met the technical requirements of enterprises, and thus cooperated with the research team of associate professor Lu Hui of Dalian University in the automatic control of biochemical systems. This patent was applied to the company’s industrial robots and automatic cleaning equipment, which greatly improved the system performance of the equipment.

"I didn’t expect to reach a cooperation so smoothly this time. We are very eager to achieve technological breakthroughs in our products. In the past, companies looking for patents faced the problems of dislocation of demand and research and unequal information, so it was difficult to find patent acquisition channels. In the patent open licensing work, publicly displaying the patents with conversion intention in colleges and universities allows us to find more good patents. " Hu Chenguang said.

This is a vivid practice for Dalian University to gain market value through patent opening license.

As early as May, 2022, China National Intellectual Property Administration launched the pilot project of patent conversion and open license. By the end of 2023, more than 3,200 patentees in 22 pilot provinces of patent opening license had participated in the pilot project, and more than 59,000 patents were matched and pushed to more than 110,000 small and medium-sized enterprises, and more than 17,000 patents were granted. Since January 20th this year, the patent opening license statement put forward by the patentee has been announced to the public through the patent bulletin after passing the examination in China National Intellectual Property Administration.

At present, 90 patents of Dalian University have been approved for announcement. "In 2022, when China launched the pilot project of patent opening license, the school actively explored this innovative measure. The patent open license allows the school to further establish a cooperative relationship with enterprises in Industry-University-Research, which more effectively promotes the wide application of technology. " Chen Huiyuan, a researcher at the Science and Technology Department of Dalian University, said that at present, more than 20 enterprises have applied to renew their contracts and explore further cooperation after transforming and applying the school open license patents.

In the statement of patent opening license issued by China National Intellectual Property Administration, many enterprises are actively carrying out patent opening license besides universities and scientific research institutions. Jingxin Communication Technology (Guangzhou) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Jingxin Communication) is one of them.

"The company proposed a key technical solution for high-performance low-carbon life antenna, which realized the double improvement of network performance and green energy saving, and laid a technical foundation for the realization of full-band high-performance low-carbon life antenna. In order to make green antenna technology more widely and deeply applied and promoted in the industry, we screened two core technology patents for open licensing, and combined with patent technology, market, law and other factors, conducted multi-dimensional patent valuation and determined the patent open licensing fee. " Li Xuefeng, senior vice president of Jingxin Communication, told the reporter.

At present, these two patents have successfully obtained a total of 2.5 million yuan in license fees. Li Xuefeng said that the rapid application of the open license patent not only showed the core competitiveness of the company’s independent intellectual property rights, but also helped to enhance its popularity and brand value, further promoting the prosperity and win-win situation of the industry ecology.

Supporting measures to promote the efficient operation of the system

The notice issued this time and the "Working Measures" have standardized a number of tasks in the implementation of the patent open licensing system.

According to the notice, the patent open license statement will be announced to the public through the patent bulletin after passing the examination by China National Intellectual Property Administration, and the public can inquire about the announcement information such as the patent open license statement and the registration of the license through the China Patent Publication Announcement System (http://epub.cnipa.gov.cn/). Patent open license announcement data is fully open to the public through the public service system of intellectual property data resources, which is convenient for all parties to inquire, retrieve and obtain. For the patent opening license reached, the intellectual property offices of all provinces (municipalities directly under the Central Government and autonomous regions) shall supervise and guide the patentee or licensee to file with China National Intellectual Property Administration in a timely manner in accordance with relevant regulations.

With regard to the estimation of licensing fees for patent opening, which is of concern to the industry, the notice is clear. According to the provisions of the Patent Examination Guide, the licensing fees paid at a fixed fee standard are generally not higher than 20 million yuan; Paid by royalty, generally not higher than 20% of net sales or 40% of profit. If the license fee is higher than the above standard, the patentee shall be guided to license by means of ordinary license.

At the same time, the notice requires that the intellectual property offices of all provinces (municipalities directly under the Central Government and autonomous regions) should strengthen the interpretation of the national standards of the Guidelines for Patent Evaluation and the Guidelines for Estimating the Use of Open Licenses (for Trial Implementation), and guide the patentees to uphold the concept of fairness, rationality, mutual benefit and practicality, accurately grasp the "one-to-many" characteristics of open licenses and the characteristics of small amount, inclusiveness and convenience, and reasonably estimate the license fees.

Focusing on possible intellectual property disputes, the Working Measures clarify the acceptance conditions of the application for mediation of disputes in the implementation of patent open license, the documents and materials that the parties should submit, the conditions for making an acceptance decision, the circumstances of non-acceptance and the acceptance registration, etc., so as to timely resolve the disputes arising in the implementation of patent open license.

"The patent open license system aims to promote the patent transformation and application. Its core system function is to solve the problem of asymmetric supply and demand of patent license, which can effectively promote the disclosure of transaction information and reduce the transaction cost of patent license, thus promoting the patent transformation and implementation." Ma Yide, dean and professor of the School of Intellectual Property, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, suggested that for the innovation subject, whether the patent license is achieved depends on the docking of market supply and demand. We should fully consider the patent quality and market demand, and open the license for high-value patents that meet the market demand. For the enterprises that accept the open license, after the open license is reached, they should actively file with China National Intellectual Property Administration to maintain the priority effect of obtaining the license, so as to avoid the right holder’s punishment of the patent during the open license period, which will affect the interests of the implementers. At the same time, the declaration of open license can also enable the public to make reasonable investment planning by understanding the implementation of the open license of a specific patent, so as to avoid disorderly competition or excessive investment caused by the large number of licensees of the same patent.(Author CoCo WU)