An industrial giant, who is at the top of the industry, has constructed a patent portfolio with certain strategical advantage by way of patent application, licensing and transfer. Such an enterprise’s patent strategy should include not only patent applications and construction of patent portfolio, but also focusing on the patent layout of future technology and future industries so that it may act as soon as possible to camp on the high technique in the next generation. Meanwhile, it may obstruct and limit competitors’ development by patent litigation, and further make its own patent technique become standards of the industry and actively build a variety of patent pools in order to strengthen its dominant position in the industry. Be careful to make intellectual property agreement with employees to predetermine ownership of the service invention and the rewords therefor in the form of labor contract or the like: to reasonably reward the important inventors to encourage employees’ innovation minds while ensuring any core technique absolutely belongs to the company so that the company could always lead the technique innovation. At the same time, the company can utilize defensive disclosure in order not to be attacked by the competitors by means of the patent tool. With respect to the brand new field and immature market, the company may consider “open patent” strategy to facilitate formation and development of the industry and in advance construct the layout of the industry and the technology.
- Patent Application & Prosecution
- IP Transfer, Licensing & Pledge
- Patent Portfolio Maintenance
- IP Strategy
- Patent Litigation
- Standard Patent
- Patent Pool
- Service Invention and Reward to Inventor
- Open Patent
- Defensive Disclosure
Example 1:
Just a few years ago, Company M firmly occupied the leading position of the telecommunication industry. However, since the new century came, its position has continuously gone down. Its market share on mobile phones was surpassed in succession by competitors such as Company N, Company S, and Company A, and other service departments were one by one stripped out from the company. Finally, the company was split into two: Mobility and Solutions, and the former was purchased by Company G and then sold to Company L. Although Company M’s R&D and innovation capability were very strong, it lost in layout of further technology and industry: it did not reach the dominant position in standard patents and choose the wrong direction in the 4G competition between WiMAX and LTE.
Example 2:
Recently, automotive companies T and F announced to open patents regarding fuel cell and EV (Electric Vehicle). They want to nurture and facilitate formation and development of the new energy vehicle industry including hybrid EV (HEV) and EV in order to keep the leading position in the future competition. On one hand, such "open patent" action is not to open all patents, that is, the scope of "open patents" is limited into a particular field – new energy vehicle, and some core patents will be reserved; on the other hand, such "open patent" action will not last forever, that is, those companies will gain their rich benefits from patents in this field after the industry grows up.
