Author: Zhou Yanpeng Time: 14.03.2018
Regardless of running any organization, enterprise, business, or managing products or markets, the concept of “layout” is involved. Professionals from various industries are not only familiar with the principles and methods involved, but also gain tangible and intangible benefits from the implementation and practice process. However, the “patent layout” involving technology industries and intangible property is not familiar to various industries in Taiwan.
In the past 30 years of developing the technology industry in Taiwan, the industry has been struggling in the field of patent layout and has yet to find a solution. At the same time, non professionals in this field or those without professional operational experience have long relied solely on superficial phenomena of vague patent cognition or erroneous cognition to propose various “theoretical theories” that are not in their field of practice and deviate from the real world, even making unfounded claims based on specific positions and logical fallacies.
The patent layout is not in line with the law, and Taiwan’s industry has suffered heavy losses
These posts that grab medicine from afar will definitely not enable Taiwan’s industry to create a “high-quality” and “advantageous” patent layout with quality, value, and price in the future. Therefore, respecting professional mechanisms and cross-border operational practices is the best rule, and it will make patent layout more effective and fruitful.
For a long time, Taiwan has engaged in erroneous patent layouts due to lack of expertise or indiscriminate use of drugs, resulting in many industries being trapped in a situation of “technological autonomy” and “market autonomy”. This has also made it difficult for industrial structures to transform or upgrade, thereby dragging companies down in the quagmire of “unfree operation”, “lack of competitive advantage”, and “difficulty in diversifying profits”.
From some quantitative indicators, it can be seen how much harm the lack of understanding on how to layout patents has caused to Taiwan’s industrial development. Taiwan’s public and private sectors invest over NT $400 billion annually in research and development, and spend an additional NT $20 billion to apply for patents from various countries. However, they can only recover approximately NT $5 billion in royalties from their own certified patent rights each year, and also have to pay NT $150 billion in royalties and NT $30 billion in damages and litigation related expenses annually.
In short, without knowing how to lay out patents, the result is that the hard-earned research and development achievements cannot be used as weapons for conquering cities and territories, and even lack self-protection.
The foundation of patent layout comes from cross-border professional operations and practice
The concept and connotation of patent layout are widely debated in Taiwan. But it is clear that the foundation of patent layout comes from multinational professional operations, rather than from non professional fields or organizations, because the practice of patent layout in Taiwan is filled with superficial phenomena such as form over substance, surface over interior, partial over comprehensive, and half knowledge over in-depth understanding.
Furthermore, another foundation of patent layout is cross-border practice, as all aspects of patent projects involve the full process of cross-border practice at all stages of operation, making it difficult to rely solely on Taiwan Patent Law, Taiwan Patent Agency and Examination Practice, Patent Engineering, Taiwan Law, Taiwanese scholars and experts, or translating foreign academic discourse. However, the decision-making and execution of patent projects in Taiwan’s industry, government, academia, and research circles have always relied entirely on local units or scholars who lack practical experience, even practice, and have no experience in patent operation to execute them. Therefore, the accumulated drawbacks of Taiwan’s patent layout are certainly deep and far-reaching.
The environment for patent layout includes self investment, research and development, and market nourishment
The “patent layout” environment of “quality” and “advantages” is nurtured by the early stages of venture capital, basic research, and applied research, as well as the cross disciplinary integration of investment and acquisition markets, potential product markets and professional practices, licensing transactions, infringement lawsuits, business models, and intelligent financial marketing in the middle and later stages.
Taking the United States as an example, it is quite mature in various activities such as venture capital, scientific research, patent examination, infringement litigation, authorization buying and selling, business models, intelligent financial marketing, professional services, investment and mergers and acquisitions, and business behaviors internalized by various organizations. Therefore, it can naturally cultivate an overall environment and operational culture of “high-quality” and “advantageous” patent layout.
In contrast, Taiwan’s venture capital industry mostly engages in late stage investment activities, with research and development focused on product development and engineering, and less on basic and applied science research. In addition, patent engineers and lawyers have limited perspectives and lack experience in the entire process and field of patent operations, which puts Taiwan’s patent layout at a disadvantage.
In addition, there is a lack of expertise in patent application and examination, a small patent market and transaction scale, a tendency for corporate mergers and acquisitions to focus on mature products and revenue, a lack of business model innovation, activities that prioritize technology promotion over smart finance marketing, and even the influence of “Taiwan first consciousness”. These situations are not conducive to the natural formation and sound development of the patent layout environment.
Patent layout methods and tools’ enclosure ‘become’ patent nail households’
Given the impoverished foundation and limited environment of Taiwan’s patent layout, it is particularly necessary to explore and develop methods and tools for patent layout in depth. The method of patent layout, to put it bluntly, is “enclosure”, which involves placing inventions and creations in good locations for technology and products in major countries, and transforming them into “patent nail households”, finding the advantageous position of technical solutions in their respective industrial structures, and converting them into patents and patent combinations from different countries. This patent layout method is very different from Taiwan’s current practice of accumulating the number of patent applications and certificates one by one, which is a random and discontinuous invention proposal.
The tool for patent layout refers to the Advanced Industrialized Patent System (AIPS) that can matrix and structure technical solutions and patent information in multiple layers, especially the product structure, technical structure, and functional/efficacy structure of inventions in the fields of medicine and software. This patent layout tool can block the subjective instability and lack of professional quality of the current work environment that relies entirely on humans. It will also significantly reduce patent applications and maintenance activities that have no technical or market value, and allocate various patent resources to become “patent nail households” and their operational activities.
After the foundation, environment, methods, and tools of the patent layout mentioned above, the key factors that still need to be explored in the patent layout are its 20 major projects summarized in the attached table. These key factors in patent layout rely entirely on well-trained cross disciplinary professionals and cross-border operational practices, as well as professional operating systems and platforms, to integrate and implement them effectively.
After considering the key factors of patent layout mentioned above, qualified and experienced patent agents or lawyers from various countries can be appointed to handle patent application business (prosecution). The capital gains, royalties, damages, and technological status and reputation benefits of patent operation after patent layout will continue to be generated.
In addition, various industry university research organizations still need collaboration and support from professionals with cross disciplinary and cross-border operations, as well as considerable height, breadth, and depth, both internally and externally, in order to integrate and integrate various professional resources and experiences, and thus enable the continuous application and accumulation of patents from various countries to enter the international market.
