1. What is patent operation?
The essence of patent operation is to take patent application and patent right as the operation object, and embed the creation, layout, operation and management of patents into the industrial chain and value chain of enterprises and the operation process of innovation chain, so as to promote the integration of innovative resources and the optimization of resource allocation structure of enterprises, so as to maximize the economic value of patent market. In short, it is to turn patents into economic value.
It can be seen that the most important object in patent operation is patent. Without patent application and patent right, patent operation is naturally out of the question. In recent years, Apple's Samsung patent war, Google's acquisition of Motorola, Huawei's payment of patent licensing fees to Ericsson, and Xiaomi's initiative to purchase American patents are all typical patent operation events.
Second, the mode of patent operation.
Patent application methods involved in patent operation mainly include patent layout, combination, custody, transfer, licensing, financing, pricing shares, building patent pool, forming technical standards, patent litigation and so on.
Several modes of patent operation are introduced:
1.R&D entity (enterprise mode): such as centralized management operation mode of IBM company and decentralized management operation mode of Toshiba company. IBM has an intellectual property management headquarters, with the vice president as the minister, responsible for handling all intellectual property matters related to the company's business; The intellectual property management headquarters has two major departments: the patent department and the legal department (independent of the company's legal department); The patent department consists of five technical fields, each of which is managed by a patent lawyer.
2. Patent pool: A platform for collecting necessary patents, where many patentees who provide necessary patents get together and grant licenses to each other or to third parties.
3.NPE mode: unproductive entity enterprises, which mainly obtain patents through acquisition and commissioned research and development, and make profits through patent litigation and licensing. For example, the offensive NPE intellectual investment company and the defensive NPE RPX company.
4. Government-led model: The government will set up a patent fund to help enterprises manage patents, enhance their economic value and deal with transnational patent litigation.
5. Service platform mode: a private intellectual property operation institution that provides patent trading and achievement transformation.
For enterprises, we should choose the appropriate patent operation mode at different stages of development. For start-ups, the main direction of patent operation should be patent layout and patent application; When enterprises enter the product market stage, they need to combine, transfer and license patents; Enterprises need patent portfolio, pledge financing and equity investment to grow into leading enterprises or even multinational companies; When an enterprise develops to the industrial stage, it should actively consider building a patent pool and participate in the negotiation of technical standards and license transfer. Huawei has grown into a global patent operation enterprise, which is worth learning from domestic enterprises. One is that Huawei regards patent assets as the basis of patent operation, and has a business-oriented patent application strategy, focusing on the number and quality of patents; Second, there must be a team of experts who understand technology, patents and finance; Third, the means of patent operation are diversified.
Third, the patent value evaluation
Any patent application mode and patent operation mode should be based on patent value evaluation, which includes legal value, technical value and economic value of patents. At present, patent value (PVD) is popular in patent value evaluation, including legal value (LVD), technical value (TVD) and economic value (EVD). Among them, the legal value can be judged from the stability, inevitability, dependence, certainty, validity period, multinational application and patent authorization status of patent infringement, the technical value can be judged from the aspects of technological advancement, industry development trend, application scope, supporting technology dependence, technology life cycle, substitutability and technology maturity, and the economic value can be judged from the market application, market scale prospect, market share, competition and so on.