Intellectual property management system of foreign enterprises 1. Organizational structure The intellectual property management department of foreign enterprises is generally directly under the jurisdiction of the head office manager and is the support unit for the technology and operation departments of the enterprise. The Intellectual Property Management Department, Technology Department, and Operations Department together form the core of the enterprise, and together with the Production Department and the Finance Department form the highest-level organizational management organization of the enterprise. For example, IBM, Mitsubishi and Fuji are all centralized organizations. ⑴ IBM's centralized management organization IBM has an intellectual property management headquarters, which is responsible for handling all intellectual property matters related to IBM's business, such as patents, trademarks, copyrights, semiconductor chips, layout design protection, and trade secrets , fonts and other matters related to intellectual property; the intellectual property management headquarters has two departments: Legal Department and Patent Department. The legal department is responsible for relevant legal affairs; the patent department is responsible for patent affairs. The Patent Department is divided into 5 technical areas, and each area has a patent attorney serving as the patent manager. Since IBM is a multinational group company, the intellectual property management department mainly has research institutes in the United States and branches in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific region. If a country does not have a branch, it will be managed by the agents of the intellectual property management departments of various countries in the region; the intellectual property management departments of neighboring countries will be responsible. For example, in countries in the Asia-Pacific region that do not have intellectual property management departments, it will be managed by Japan. The Intellectual Property Management Department coordinates management; IBM Intellectual Property Headquarters has strict requirements for the Intellectual Property Departments of subsidiaries around the world. In addition to making business reports to the headquarters, the Intellectual Property Departments of subsidiaries around the world must implement the unified intellectual property policies of the headquarters and accept Strong functional management at the headquarters. ⑵ Organizational structure of Mitsubishi Corporation and Fujitsu Corporation Mitsubishi Corporation has an intellectual property headquarters, which consists of three departments: Patent Department, Foreign Intellectual Property Department and Planning Department. The Patent Department has a close relationship with the research and development department and is responsible for assisting researchers and technicians in obtaining intellectual property rights, protecting the company's rights, and preventing the company from infringing on the rights of others. It also has overseas personnel responsible for patent applications and litigation matters in the local area; Planning Department Responsible for formulating the company's internal regulations related to intellectual property rights, supervising the management and implementation of intellectual property rights, and branch offices' support for inter-enterprise intellectual property rights; externally responsible for the use of the company's intellectual property rights, external negotiations, litigation and infringement coordination. Fujitsu's patent headquarters manages intellectual property work and consists of five departments: Patent Management Department, Patent Business Department, Patent Department 1, Patent Department 2 and Technology Investigation Department. It also has a Patent Promotion Department under each business department, which is composed of Senior personnel in the business division serve as directors and are responsible for patent planning and promotion. ⑶ The organizational structure of Toshiba Corporation. The intellectual property management department of Toshiba Corporation consists of the intellectual property headquarters, four research institutes, and 11 business divisions. There are also patent departments, sections, and organizational units under each research institute and each business division. constitute. This department has 7 departments, namely: Planning Department: Responsible for promoting the company's mid- to long-term intellectual property strategy and managing intellectual property administrative matters; Technical Legal Department: Responsible for handling intellectual property litigation matters; Software Protection Department: Responsible for the registration of software copyrights , utilization and compensation matters; Patent Departments 1 and 2: responsible for the overall management of technology contracts; Patent Application Department: centralized management of domestic and foreign patent application matters; Design and Trademark Department: responsible for application and registration of designs and trademarks; Patent Information Center: responsible for Manage patent information and establish an electronic application system. Each research institute and each business department is equipped with an intellectual property department, which is directly subordinate to the deputy director or chief engineer responsible for technical work. It is mainly responsible for the intellectual property administrative affairs of the research institute and business division, and is responsible for patent discovery from the early stages of product research and development. , patent investigation, preparation of patent relationship diagrams, all services including domestic and foreign patent applications.

⑷ Canon's organizational structure, the Intellectual Property Legal Department, is managed by row - divided into product categories and technology categories. The product category has 4 departments: Intellectual Property Legal Planning Department, Intellectual Property Legal Management Department, Patent Business Department, and Patent Information Department. ; There are 7 patent departments in the technology category to manage patents by technology classification. ⑸ Bayer, one of the largest chemical companies in Germany, has a patent committee and a patent office, which are parallel organizational structures. The Patent Committee is jointly composed of production, scientific research, technology application and patent offices. Its responsibilities are: ① Analyze and determine which invention projects can be patented abroad; ② Which country to apply for; ③ Manage the patents that have been granted; ④ According to the patent The project registration form determines which projects need to maintain their patent rights and which ones can be waived. The Patent Department is under the direct leadership of the company headquarters and consists of two departments, one is the Patent Department, and the other is the Licensing Contract and Technology Coordination Department. The main responsibilities of the Patent Department: ① Management from patent application to patent authorization; ② Investigation of patent information before applying for a patent and before the product is put on the market. If the same technology is found, try to buy the patent rights of others; ③ Handle patent disputes, The first is to resolve the matter through negotiation; the second is to adjudicate through litigation. ④ Have business contacts with courts at all levels. The Licensing Contract and Technology Coordination Section*** consists of 8 people and is responsible for licensing contracts, including patent licensing, technical secrets and technical cooperation. Daily management tasks mainly include: ① Receiving technology license inquiries, organizing license negotiations, and signing relevant contracts; ② Technical cooperation, signing usage contracts with companies that need to use Bayer's technology. The responsibilities of the intellectual property management departments of each company are similar, and their basic responsibilities can be classified into ten items: ① Patent information management work; ② Invention mining work; ③ Patent application work; ④ Conclusion of patent implementation licensing contracts; ⑤ Management of patent rights; ⑥ Handle patent disputes; ⑦ Comprehensive management of trademarks and other intellectual property rights; ⑧ Invention awards; ⑨ Patent education; ⑩ Contact patent offices or lawyers; It is worth noting that companies in the United States, Japan, and Germany attach great importance to patent information Work. For example, IBM regularly publishes technical bulletins, and three of the four main responsibilities of its patent manager are related to intelligence, such as: ① Collect and master patent information, technical information and the activities of various professional departments related to its subordinate companies; ② Based on intelligence Decide whether to apply for a patent, recommend the scope of application countries, and provide relevant business consultation; ③ Adjust the number of applications according to the annual patent application plan expected by the headquarters; ④ Collect relevant patent information and technology trends information from IBM and other companies, and carry out targeted knowledge research Negotiations over property rights. Furthermore, Hitachi's Intellectual Property Division ranks patent information management as a top priority. Canon has 11 departments responsible for intellectual property management, and the Patent Information Department is one of them. Toshiba Corporation's Intellectual Property Headquarters has a Patent Information Center; with the development of the Intellectual Property Headquarters, Mitsubishi Corporation separated the Patent Information Center that was originally under the jurisdiction of the Patent Department from the Patent Department and became an independent company. German companies are no exception. They investigate patent information before applying for a patent and before putting the product on the market, such as Bayer. The above statement shows the importance of patent information from another perspective. Secondly, comparison of intellectual property management systems of foreign enterprises. Intellectual property rights serve as a company's operating resources. In order for the patent department to effectively carry out various businesses, it needs sufficient funds to support it. If the research results of the enterprise cannot be fully protected, it will actually be a waste of research investment and development funds. This idea is the common sense of IBM, Hitachi, and Canon. The intellectual property management systems of foreign enterprises can be roughly divided into three categories: one is basically a hierarchical centralized management system, such as IBM; the other is a decentralized management system, such as Toshiba; the other is a management system based on ranks, such as Canon company. They are safer and more distinctive.

Its uniqueness: Whether it is centralized management, decentralized management or queue management, the intellectual property management department is at the core of the head office management and is in close contact with the technical department and operating department to handle the intellectual property work after authorization. All are gathered here for unified management and become the think tank of the head office. ⑴ The characteristics of the centralized management system are: the company-wide intellectual property management department operates according to a unified intellectual property policy, protects the overall interests of the head office to the greatest extent, and can work smoothly in the activities of developing, manufacturing, and buying and selling products, which mainly reflects In terms of management methods for the transfer, authorization and sub-authorization of intellectual property rights. That is to say, the research and development expenses are paid in advance by the parent company to the subsidiaries, and all matters after patent rights and authorization are coordinated and responsible for the intellectual property management department of the parent company, such as IBM. ⑵ The characteristics of the decentralized management system are: full authorization. Full authorization means full authorization under the unified management of the Intellectual Property Department. Decentralized management is for each research institute and committee. Its advantage is that each business department and research institute limits the number of patent applications and determines the budget for intellectual property according to product characteristics. However, after obtaining the patent rights, how to use the intellectual property rights, handle disputes, negotiate with external parties, file objections and other matters are managed by the intellectual property headquarters, such as Toshiba Corporation. In addition to its domestic intellectual property system, Toshiba also has an overseas intellectual property system. The overseas intellectual property system is also divided into two parts. One part sets up patent offices in Washington and the West Coast; the other part sets up intellectual property committees in subsidiaries in Europe and the United States. , responsible for formulating local corporate intellectual property management rules and regularly discussing intellectual property issues. The Intellectual Property Headquarters coordinates the contact between various business divisions through various committees and research committees. At the same time, it has the right to decide on the candidates responsible for intellectual property work in each business division. ⑶ The characteristics of the determinant intellectual property management system are: managing intellectual property rights according to technology categories and product categories. Implement patent management by technology category, so as to avoid duplication of technology development; manage patents in line with the product strategies of each business unit. The Intellectual Property Legal Department centrally manages all matters after authorization, including the use of rights, negotiations, litigation, etc. The Legal Department sends department personnel to participate in product legal meetings organized by various business divisions within the company, or operating department meetings organized based on various issues, to understand the relevant situation of technology and products, so that the legal system runs through all stages of product development to product sales. , use intellectual property regulations to improve the effectiveness of problem solving. Finally, we should also pay attention to the intellectual property management system of Bayer in Germany. Its characteristic is that the patent office will modify the patent application documents submitted by the company's inventors, and depending on the situation, the company's patent committee will study and determine which patent office to apply for a patent to. As a result, the success rate of patent authorization is ensured to be relatively high; at the same time, infringement and invalidation requests are reduced; the implementation of patents is mainly within the company, and the probability of dealing with patent disputes is correspondingly reduced. ?Third, the management system of intellectual property rights of foreign enterprises The intellectual property management system covers a wide range of areas, mainly focusing on the ownership of property rights, reward mechanisms, the use of intellectual property rights, the handling of intellectual property disputes, and intellectual property education. Since each enterprise's situation is different, each enterprise has its own emphasis in formulating enterprise management systems, which is worth learning from. 1． Ownership of intellectual property rights On the basis of complying with international conventions and national patent laws, companies in various countries have formulated corresponding rules and regulations. For example, IBM, Mitsubishi, Hitachi, Fujitsu, etc. all use the method of signing contracts or formulating social regulations to own the intellectual property rights of the companies. ⑴ Sign an agreement? IBM signs a "Consent Letter on Information, Inventions and Works" with its employees; it signs a comprehensive technology contract with its subsidiaries. Employees are required to transfer all intellectual property rights to the company if they obtain confidential information from within the company, information collected from inventions, works and other creative works completed by former employees, or results produced as a result of the performance of their duties (business). All; employees of IBM branches in Japan are also required to fill in an invention transfer consent form as a condition for entering IBM.

Since the parent company provides research and development expenses for each subsidiary, the intellectual property rights of its research and development results must be transferred to the parent company. The parent company centrally manages the intellectual property rights from subsidiaries around the world and re-provides relevant technologies through sub-licensing. For use by subsidiaries, the right to use the trademark is basically similar. Each subsidiary must pay a certain amount of intellectual property royalties from its turnover to the head office. ⑵ Social regulations? The social regulations formulated by Japanese companies stipulate that intellectual property rights belong to the company. Even inventions made within one year after leaving office should be notified to the company, and the company will decide the ownership of the property rights. For example, Hitachi's corporate regulations stipulate that employees' service inventions and non-service inventions shall be owned by the company, and non-service inventions must also be reported to the company, and it shall be decided whether or not to do so based on needs. If an employee completes a service invention during his or her employment and obtains a patent within one year after leaving the company, the company should also be notified, and the company will decide whether to use the patent. Both Mitsubishi and Fujitsu require employees to transfer their inventions to the company. Specific social regulations, such as Mitsubishi Corporation, stipulate that all patent rights for service inventions made by employees belong to the company, and the transfer of non-service inventions and non-business inventions shall be coordinated with employees according to the needs of the company. Fujitsu requires employees to transfer inventions, research-related patents or utility model rights generated when engaging in inventions or research plans related to the company's business to the company's jurisdiction. 2． Establish an incentive mechanism for inventors. According to the World Intellectual Property Organization's recent announcement, in 1999, the world's 100 companies that applied for the most patents were ranked, half of which were American companies. This is closely related to the government's implementation of science and technology policies to encourage invention and creation, and at the same time, it is closely related to the reward system implemented by each company. Based on the achievements of inventors, various companies have developed corresponding cumulative points systems, graded reward systems and various commendation systems. For example, the incentive policies of IBM and Hitachi have their own characteristics, making invention and creation a social trend. . ⑴ The cumulative points system is a reward method established by IBM to motivate inventors. The characteristic of the bonus program is that points are given to inventors who apply for patents. Invention patents are worth 3 points, and inventions published in technical bulletins are worth 1 point. When the points are accumulated to 12 points, an invention performance award of US$3,600 will be given; if the inventor applies for a patent for the first time and is adopted, the first application award will be given with a bonus of US$1,500; if the invention is applied for the second time, the invention application will be awarded. Prize $500. ⑵ Various commendations? Japanese companies generally have first-time application awards, invention application awards, application compensation awards, special merit awards and other awards. Each company has formulated corresponding rules and regulations based on its own situation, that is, rewarding inventors heavily. As long as the intellectual property is used, the inventor can receive bonuses, even if the person is deceased or has resigned. For example, Mitsubishi and Hitachi implement rewards until the termination of the rights; Fujitsu and Toshiba implement a graded reward system, with the lowest bonus being 4,000 yen per invention, and the highest bonus being 600,000 to 1 million yen per year. Fujitsu is divided into 7 levels, and Toshiba is divided into 5 levels. 3. Intellectual property education and training In Japan, intellectual property education has two meanings. One is the course education on intellectual property legal knowledge set up for all new employees or employees at different levels. The second is training for personnel in the intellectual property department. The first-level education courses include introductory patent knowledge education, patent specification writing knowledge, etc., such as Hitachi and Mitsubishi; Fujitsu conducts intellectual property management education for managers of various departments of the company to understand the concept and importance of patents. In the process of intellectual property education, the intellectual property management department plays an important role. The course content of the second-level education includes trademarks, copyrights, technology contracts, case studies, patent information, patent writing and patent management, etc.; and conditions are created for employees to pass the patent agent qualification examination or to send personnel to European and American patent offices for rotation training and study.

In short, the most distinctive characteristics of intellectual property management in modern foreign enterprises are: first, intellectual property management is a core part of the organization's strategy; second, the establishment of a considerable intellectual property management team; third, the improvement of the reward mechanism ; Fourth, smooth communication in intelligence work; The most important thing is that enterprises must master valid patents in order to achieve long-term benefits.