Intellectual property refers to the results obtained by intellectual creative work, and is a right enjoyed by intellectual workers in accordance with the law. This right includes copyright (copyright - literature\artistic works\natural science\ Social science works, engineering technology and other works, computer software), industrial property rights (patents-inventions\utility models\designs, trademarks, trade secrets, etc.), integrated circuit layout designs.

Protection of intellectual property rights Significance:

(1) Protecting intellectual property rights is conducive to mobilizing people's enthusiasm for scientific and technological research and literary and artistic creation. The intellectual property protection system is committed to protecting the intellectual achievements of right holders in the fields of science and technology and culture. Only by providing timely and comprehensive protection to the intellectual achievements and legal rights of right holders can we mobilize people's creative initiative and promote the optimal allocation of social resources.

(2) Protecting intellectual property rights can bring huge economic benefits to enterprises and enhance their economic strength. The exclusivity of intellectual property determines that companies can remain invincible in the market only if they have independent intellectual property rights. More and more companies are beginning to realize the huge role of intangible assets such as technology, brands, and trade secrets. How to gradually increase the value of these intangible assets depends on the reasonable protection of intellectual property rights.

(3) Protecting intellectual property rights is conducive to promoting foreign trade and introducing foreign business and investment. my country joined the World Trade Organization on December 1, 2001, implemented the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, and protected the intellectual property rights of natural, legal persons or other organizations at home and abroad. Without intellectual property protection, our country cannot participate in world trade activities.

How to protect intellectual property rights:

Humanity has entered the 21st century. In this new century full of hope, science, technology, literature and art are developing rapidly and will achieve more brilliant achievements. With the advent of the information society and knowledge economy, the contradiction between the protection of intellectual property and economic, technological and cultural development, and the contradiction between developed and underdeveloped countries have become increasingly prominent. At the same time, the intellectual property system is playing an important role in promoting economic development and Technological progress and cultural prosperity will also play an increasingly important role.

my country's "Patent Law of the People's Republic of China", "Trademark Law of the People's Republic of China", Copyright Law of the People's Republic of China and other laws and regulations have been promulgated successively, providing various The protection of intellectual property rights of enterprises provides a legal basis.

1. Patent Protection

There are three types of patents: invention patents, utility model patents and design patents. The patent rights enjoyed by the patentee mainly include the right to manufacture, the right to use, the right to sell, the right to sell, the right to import, the right to transfer and the right to license. Patent rights also include prohibition rights, waiver rights, marking rights, etc. Invention patents are protected for 20 years, and utility models and designs are protected for 10 years.

Applying for a patent has the following benefits:

1. Obtaining monopoly rights: The patentee can directly prevent corresponding competition from business rivals and obtain higher profit returns.

2. Earn royalties: For a patent, even if there is no immediate demand in the market, it is likely that people will realize the use of the patent in the future and be willing to pay royalties. The American Xerox Company invented graphics User interface, but did not apply for a patent. Later, Microsoft and Apple used the graphical user interface as the basis of their personal computer operating systems. Preliminary estimates indicate that Xerox has lost nearly 1 billion US dollars in license fees. On the other hand, , IBM obtained US$1.7 billion in revenue by transferring patents in 2001.

3. As a defensive shield: If the inventor fails to apply for a patent at the first time, competitors will get there first. At that time, all the inventor's research and development efforts will be in vain, and the inventor himself will not be able to use it. own scientific research results.

4. Assist in developing foreign markets: At present, more than 170 countries and regions in the world have established and implemented patent systems. Many foreign buyers, especially American buyers, will require local manufacturers or sellers to prove It owns the intellectual property rights of its products to protect itself from being involved in infringement lawsuits, so that it is willing to conduct transactions.

5. Win the big with the small and enhance the competitiveness of enterprises: Patents are equally important to large, medium and small enterprises and new enterprises. In the fiercely competitive market, small enterprises can obtain patented new technologies. Inventions can defeat leading products established by large companies with huge amounts of advertising.

6. Increase the value of the enterprise: If a third party is willing to invest in a company, and if the company has a number of valuable patents, the company's stock price will increase significantly. In 1997, Microsoft acquired a small company with less than 6,000 users for US$425 million. The acquisition price was 40 times the industry average price based on the number of users. Microsoft was willing to pay this share price because the company held 35 Internet-based products. Key patents for delivering television content.

7. It is helpful for enterprises to make scientific and correct decisions: Through patent analysis, enterprises can understand technological trends, industry trends, market trends, new product trends, and then predict and formulate the near, medium and long-term future plans of the enterprise. Development planning determines which products the company will develop to occupy the market, maintain the company's leading position, and expand market share.

2. Trademark Protection

The "Trademark Law of the People's Republic of China" stipulates that commodity trademarks, service marks, collective trademarks and certification marks can apply for registration in China and obtain trademarks. Exclusive rights. Trademark logos can be text, graphics or a combination of them.

Commodity trademarks refer to trademarks used on goods produced, manufactured, processed, selected and distributed.

Service trademarks refer to trademarks used by operators providing services to distinguish the services they provide from those provided by others.

Collective trademarks are used by members of industrial and commercial groups, associations or other collective organizations on goods or services to indicate that the operators of goods or service providers belong to the same organization so as to distinguish them from those of non-members. A trademark that differentiates the goods or services provided.

Certification trademarks are controlled by administrative agencies, groups or their designated institutions with control and detection capabilities, and are used by others on goods or services to certify the origin and main content of the goods. Trademarks of raw materials, manufacturing methods, quality, precision and other specific qualities of goods.

The trademark protection period is 10 years. During this period, there is no fee. It can be renewed after 10 years. Trademark registration has the following benefits:

1. Protected nationwide , and cannot be used by anyone else.

2. A registered trademark is the most important intangible asset of an enterprise that can be passed down to future generations and can continue to exist. It can be transferred, inherited, used as property investment, mortgage, etc.

3. Products can easily be sold in large shopping malls or supermarkets. More and more large shopping malls or supermarkets only allow products with registered trademarks to enter.

4. Most consumers believe that the quality of goods using registered trademarks is more reliable and it is easier to win the trust of consumers.

5. Prevent your carefully designed trademark from being registered by others first. Because my country implements the "first to file" principle for applications for registration of the same trademark, not only will the latter not be allowed to register the trademark, but re-use will also not be allowed, otherwise it will constitute infringement.

6. Avoid unintentional infringement and pay huge compensation fees. The new judicial interpretation stipulates that the amount of compensation is decided by the infringed party himself.

3. Copyright protection

At present, copyright is mostly used to protect computer software at home and abroad. In our country, the "Computer Software Registration Method" is specially branched from copyright to protect independent intellectual property rights. software for key protection. There are many advantages to using software registration as a copyright protection method:

1. Registered software will announce the right holder, development time, completion time, name and content, and there will be a clear basis for disputes. It can clarify the ownership of software and avoid unnecessary ownership disputes caused by personnel changing jobs. It can also be said that software registration is the prerequisite for administrative settlement or legal proceedings of software rights disputes.

2. The authorization is fast, and the certificate can be obtained in about two months. The copyright protection period is long, with a protection period of 50 years.

3. Registered software does not disclose the software program. Only when infringement occurs, it will be used as the basis for infringement determination, and confidentiality is extremely high.

4. The scope of protection is wide and can be effectively used as the basis for determining infringement.

5. The fee is low, and only a one-time payment is required, no annual fee is required.

Attachment: Relevant legal provisions:

The new "Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China" came into effect on October 1, 1997. In the new criminal law, the crime of infringement of intellectual property rights is listed separately. Prior to this, China's relevant intellectual property protection laws and regulations had included provisions such as the provisions of the criminal law to pursue criminal liability. This revision of China's criminal law demonstrates China's efforts to strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights.

The relevant provisions of the new criminal law are as follows:

1. If a trademark identical to the registered trademark is used on the same kind of goods without the permission of the owner of the registered trademark, if the circumstances are serious, The offender shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention, and shall also or solely be fined; if the circumstances are particularly serious, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years and not more than seven years, and shall also be fined.

2. Anyone who knowingly sells goods with counterfeit registered trademarks and the sales amount is relatively large shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention, and shall also or solely be fined; if the sales amount is huge, he shall be sentenced to three years More than seven years and not more than seven years in prison, and shall also be fined.

3. Forgery or unauthorized manufacture of registered trademarks of others or sale of forged or unauthorized registered trademarks, if the circumstances are serious, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years, criminal detention or surveillance, and shall also or solely be punished with a fine; If the circumstances are particularly serious, the offender shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than seven years, and shall also be fined.

4. Those who counterfeit others’ patents, if the circumstances are serious, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years.

5. Anyone who commits one of the following copyright infringement situations for the purpose of profit, and the amount of illegal gains is relatively large, or there are other serious circumstances, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention, and shall also or solely be fined; If the amount of illegal income is huge or there are other particularly serious circumstances, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than seven years, and shall also be fined:

(1) Reproduction and distribution of written works, music, etc. without the permission of the copyright owner. Films, televisions, video works, computer software and other works;

(2) Publishing books for which others have exclusive publishing rights;

(3) Production without audio and video recordings Copying and distributing the audio and video recordings made by the artist without the author's permission;

(4) Producing and selling works of art that counterfeit the signature of others.

6. Whoever, for the purpose of profit, knowingly sells infringing copies as specified above and obtains a huge amount of illegal income, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention, and shall also or solely be fined.

7. Anyone who commits any of the following acts of infringing on trade secrets, causing heavy losses to the right holder of the trade secrets, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention, and shall also or solely be fined; if the consequences are particularly serious; , shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than seven years, and shall also be fined:

(1) Obtaining the right holder’s business secrets through theft, inducement, coercion or other unfair means;

(2) Disclose, use or allow others to use the right holder’s business secrets obtained by means of the previous paragraph;

(3) Violate the agreement or the right holder’s requirements for keeping business secrets, disclose, use or Allow others to use the trade secrets in their possession.

Whoever knowingly or should have known about the acts listed in the preceding paragraph, obtains, uses or discloses the trade secrets of others shall be deemed to have infringed the trade secrets.

The above-mentioned trade secrets refer to technical information and business information that are not known to the public, can bring economic benefits to the right holder, are practical and the right holder has taken confidentiality measures.

The above-mentioned right holder refers to the owner of the trade secret and the user of the trade secret with the permission of the owner of the trade secret.

In addition, if a unit commits any of the above-mentioned crimes, the unit shall be fined, and the person directly in charge and other directly responsible personnel shall be punished in accordance with the above-mentioned provisions.