Regarding the question of improving the quality and efficiency of IPR examination, SHEN Changyu said that starting in 2018, the trademark examination period would be shortened from the past eight months to less than four months within five years to reach the fastest level of the OECD countries; the invention patent examination period would be shortened by 1/3 on average; the high-value patent examination period would be shortened by more than half, and it should reach the current fastest international level. In order to achieve this goal, the CNIPA has taken a series of measures. First, strengthen the team building of examiners, increase the intensity of examination and improve the examination ability. Second, comprehensively improve the informatization level of examination work, accelerate the construction of intelligent examination system, and use information technology to improve quality and efficiency. Third, further optimize examination management procedures and adopt short-term refined management to improve examination quality and efficiency. Fourth, further innovate the ideas and modes of the examination work. For example, introduce centralized examination and accelerate examination to improve quality and efficiency. Significant results have been achieved through this series of measures. At the end of 2018, the trademark examination period has been shortedned from the past eight months to less than six months, and the high-value patent examination period has been shortened by 10%. In 2019, efforts will be further intensified to ensure that before the end of this year, the trademark examination period is further shortended to less than five months, and the high-value patent examination period is further shortened by more than 15% on the basis of 10% reduction last year to better meet the needs of society.
(Source: CNIPA website)
The fourth revision of the Chinese Patent Law is expected to be completed within 2019.
On March 11, at the press conference of the Second Session of the 13th National People's Congress, the commissioner of the China National Intellectual Property Administration, SHEN Changyu, said that the Chinese Patent Law is undergoing a fourth revision. In December 2018, the executive meeting of the State Council reviewed and approved the draft amendment to the Patent Law. At present, the National People's Congress conducted its first review, and the revision of the Patent Law is expected to be completed within 2019. SHEN Changyu revealed that in the fourth revision of the Patent Law, an important aspect is to strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights, improve the punitive compensation system for infringement, increase the illegal cost of infringement significantly, and stipulate up to five times the punitive compensation for intentional infringers to let the infringer pay a heavy price. Now, the overall progress of this work has been smooth. SHEN Changyu said that the revision of the Patent Law is of great significance for the transformation of scientific and technological achievements and the promotion of invention-creations. It will stimulate the inventors, help to protect the innovation results, and better promote the transformation and use of innovation results.
(Source: CNIPA website)
China's IP application surge causes concern
According to data released by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) on the 19th, the number of international patents filed though this organization in the world reached a record 253,000 in 2018, increasing 3.9% over 2017. Among all the applications, 50.5% came from Asia, in which Chinese technology giant Huawei applied for 5,405 patents, ranking first in the world. The Director General of the WIPO, Francis Gurry, said in a statement that innovation activities are “historically turning from the West to the East”.
According to the data from the WIPO, Huawei submitted 5,405 international patent applications last year, ranking first in the world and setting a record for the number of international patent applications filed by one company in WIPO's history. Japan Mitsubishi (2812 applications), American Intel (2499 applications), American Qualcomm (2404 applications) and China ZTE (2080 applications) ranked second to fifth. The number of patent applications from academic institutions such as Chinese universities is also directly tracking that of the United States.
Reuters reported that there are four Chinese universities in the top ten universities, which is the first time in history. Among them, Shenzhen University (201 applications) and South China University of Technology (170 applications) ranked third and fourth, before Harvard University (169 applications). The University of California (501 applications) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (216) are the top two.
(Source: People.cn- Intellectual Property)
China's blockchain and artificial intelligence patent applications rank first in the World Intellectual Property Organization
According to the message from the World Intellectual Property Review (WIPR) website published in January 2019, the survey data released by the famous accounting firm UHY Hacker Young showed that in 2017, the Chinese company was the main applicant of the blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI) patents in the WIPO.
In 2017, global companies submitted 314 blockchain patent applications to the WIPO, 99 of which were submitted by Chinese companies; the second-ranked US company submitted 92 blockchain patents; and UK companies applied for 34 blockchain patents to the WIPO, ranking first in European countries.
According to the survey data from UHY, Chinese companies are still leading the way in submitting new AI patent applications to the WIPO. Of the 649 applications filed with the WIPO in 2017, China accounted for 473 applications; the United States and South Korea submitted 65 and 41 patents respectively; in 2017, UK companies submitted only two AI patents to the WIPO.
(Source: CNIPA website)
The People's Court promotes the intelligence of trial and execution
In 2019, the Chinese People's Court will further lead the construction of smart courts with artificial intelligence, focus on advancing the intelligence of trial, execution and services, and use information technology to help the judiciary openness and practice people's judicatory.
The director of the Supreme People’s Court Information Center said that in 2019, the People's Court will fully promote the in-depth application of electronic file simultaneously generated with the case and the intelligence thereof, comprehensively promote mobile electronic litigation, focus on building China Mobile Micro Court, improve and promote the application of intelligent auxiliary systems such as sentencing assistance, factor trial, risk warning and case-like push in national courts, allow intelligent auxiliary applications to cover all aspects of trials.
At the same time, in promoting the intelligence of services, the People's Court will focus on integrating various applications, improving the level of integrated services, and forming application scenarios for electronic delivery and telephone delivery, providing information support for solving the difficulty of delivery. Establish a citizenship information database, a lawyer information database, an enterprise information database and a judge information database; in combination with face recognition technology, provide identity verification services, and enhance the identity authentication support of parties, lawyers, enterprises and judges.
(Source: China Intellectual Property Information website)
In 2018, the total number of copyright registrations in China reached 3.4573 million pieces.
2018 China copyright registration report from the China National Copyright Administration published recently showed that in 2018, the total number of copyright registrations in China reached 3.457338 million pieces, increasing 25.83% as compared with 2.747652 million pieces in 2017. Among them, the works registrations were 2.351952 million pieces, with a growth rate of 17.48%; computer software copyright registrations were 1.104839 million pieces, increasing 48.22%.
According to the report, in 2018, local copyright administrative departments and copyright registration agencies fully implemented the "13th Five-Year Plan" for innovative national construction strategies and copyright work, attached great importance to copyright registration work, and adopted effective measures to actively promote, focus on and improve services, and promote the transformation of copyright achievements. The ability to create and innovate various works and software has been greatly improved, the number of registrations has continued to grow, and new progress has been made in China's copyright registration work.
(Source: China Intellectual Property Information Website)
Beijing Dragon IP was awarded “2017-2018 Beijing Excellent Patent Agency-Leading Organization”
On April 2, 2019, the Beijing Intellectual Property Service Industry Working Conference was held. The list of outstanding patent agencies and outstanding patent attorneys in Beijing from 2017 to 2018 was announced and a ceremony was held.
In November 2018, the Beijing Patent Attorneys Association launched the selection of outstanding patent agencies and outstanding patent attorneys in Beijing in 2017-2018. According to the "Selection Measures for Outstanding Patent Agencies and Outstanding Patent Attorneys in Beijing", through agencies’ declaration, recommendations, preliminary examinations, expert review and council discussion, 20 patent agencies were finally awarded the title of “Beijing Excellent Patent Agency”, and 40 patent attorneys were awarded “Beijing Excellent Patent Attorney”.
In this selection, Beijing Dragon Intellectual Property Law Firm was entitled “2017-2018 Beijing Excellent Patent Agency-Leading Organization”, and the deputy general manager & senior partner of Dragon IP, ZENG Xianwei, was entitled “2017-2018 Beijing Excellent Patent Attorney- Outstanding Attorney”.
Beijing Dragon IP will continue to adhere to the concept of "Client First, Integrity-Based, Professional Service", to provide high-quality services for clients, and contribute to the development of Beijing intellectual property industry.
Specials and Practice of Attorney
Tips for drafting SBAIN inventions
--- How to better write Chinese patent applications involving SBAIN
Here, SBAIN represents five types of inventions, including: S for software (software invention), B for business model, A for artificial intelligence, I for IoT (Internet of Things), and N for network (Internet invention). As we all know, in recent years, SBAIN inventions have made rapid progress, and the number of patent applications in related fields has shown an increasing trend in the world's major countries such as the United States, Europe, China, Japan and other countries.
In fact, how to write an application document for a new invention of SBAIN that can reflect the essence of the invention and meet the examination standards of technical solution and inventiveness for example has been always an important issue. Here, the author combines his own practical experience to give some tips below in order to better help practitioners to write a better-quality SBAIN invention application.
Tip 1. Keep away from "third party”
The “third party” mentioned here refers to “management”, including but not limited to the management and supervision of administration, finance, commerce and other fields. It is worth noting that the SBAIN invention patent application is usually inseparable from the word "management", which is caused by the invention nature of SBAIN. In fact, the SBAIN invention patent application is to some extent to achieve a more efficient and more integrated management. However, according to the author's incomplete statistics, the invention patent applications in the above fields are very easy to be classified into a specific technical field, namely “G06Q”, in the preliminary examination process of the Chinese patent examination. Correspondingly, the invention authorization rate under this IPC classification will be significantly reduced (according to incomplete statistics, the authorization rate may be reduced by about half as compared with that in other technical fields).
Therefore, the author's suggestion is to use as few words as "management" in the writing of the claims of the specification, especially the abstract, the title of the invention and claim 1. Accordingly, "management" can be replaced with technical terms such as "control" or "monitoring." This is because if there are a large number of words like "management" in the specification, it will not only cause the preliminary examiner to unfavourably classify the invention into "G06Q", but also lead the substantive examiner to subjectively make an unfavorable identification. That is, the SBAIN invention belongs to pure intellectual activities, but not technical solutions.
Tip 2. Live on "fat cat"
Here, “fat cat” refers to "communications". Undoubtedly, the SBAIN invention exists on the basis of network architecture. In other words, it is a technology that implements specific applications based on network. In general, invention-creations in this field are based on one of the "three-layer" architectures, including a "network layer", a "communications layer" and an "application layer", and the inventive point is usually the top layer of the three-layer architecture, i.e., the “application layer”.
Here, if the invention on the "application layer" is simply written, it is easy for the examiner to think that it is a simple intellectual activity and thereby reduce the technical evaluation on the invention. Therefore, the author's suggestion is that even if the inventive point involves only an improvement to the "application layer", the specification should be written from the underlying architecture, i.e., the “network layer”, and the communications connection relationship between the various physical components on the “communications layer” is given. Such a communications connection relationship is the most direct and easiest to be embodied by a drawing having a hardware connection relationship (which will be described later in tip 9).
According to the author's statistics, by embedding the structural description of the underlying "network layer" and the intermediate "communication layer" into the specification, the examiner could be guided maximumly to regard the SBAIN invention as a technical invention for subsequent examination.
Tip 3. Get through "arteries and veins of Ren and Du"
Here, the "arteries and veins of Ren and Du" refers to the method for drafting “technical problems” and “technical effects”, which is also the top key point. In other words, how the solution to the technical problem better reflects the technology is the key to helping the SBAIN invention pass through the examination on technical solution.
However, for some specific SBAIN inventions, if the invention is indeed a management improvement or inevitably reflects the nature of management, the author suggests writing a number of technical problems, especially placing technical problems that are directed to technical nature, such as how to reduce network bandwidth usage, how to use less network signaling, and how to more quickly interconnect and intercommunicate components in an IoT system, in the front of the technical problem part, and placing management problems, such as how to efficiently conduct information management and how to more comprehensively monitor system information, in the rear, in order to have a higher evaluation on the technical nature of the invention.
Tip 4. Carry out "face-off"
The "face-off" mentioned here refers to the inclusion of as many technical terms as possible in the specification, and it also echoes the above-mentioned tip 1 from another aspect.
For example, suppose an invention relates to an IoT system in which the improved AI algorithm is used to better manage vehicle waiting time at traffic intersections. Here, in independent claim 1, it is recommended that the "vehicle waiting time" is upgraded as "information transmitted from sensors (a plurality of sensors set at a traffic intersection)", "vehicle traffic management" is replaced with "information control", “AI algorithm” is replaced with "information control by a processor included in the center console", etc.
Obviously, it echoes tip 3. Similarly, through the intervention of such technical vocabulary, it is expected that the examiner will have a higher evaluation on the technicality of the invention.
Tip 5. Open up "application scenarios"
For the AI algorithm type invention or the management type invention as mentioned above, the author has suggested expanding the application scenarios of the invention as much as possible in the specification, especially in the process of writing specific embodiments, according to experience. Here, readers can refer to the new examination standards issued by EPO at the end of 2018. The newly added subitems indicate whether AI artificial intelligence and ML machine learning related inventions can be patented. It was the first time that major patent office separately discussed the patent eligibility of AI and ML related inventions.
It is clear that in the EPO examination, simple AI and ML algorithms cannot be patented, and the application of AI and ML algorithms to specific application scenarios, for example, business scenarios, cannot be allowed either. Applying AI and ML algorithms to more industrial scenarios will have a licensing perspective.
Therefore, if feasible, it is recommended to extend the application scenarios of AI and ML algorithms as much as possible. It is also possible to refer to the new EPO examination standard mentioned above (Chinese examiners are also familiar with and will refer to it), and try to place those application scenarios that are explicitly patentable in the front of the specific embodiment part.
Tip 6. Make use of "divisional application"
If the essence of the SBAIN invention is indeed in terms of management, rather than technical improvements, the author suggests that it is possible to construct multiple sets of claims in the writing of the claims and "hide" the technical solutions that are the most desired to be protected temporarily in the rear of the multiple sets of claims or somewhere in the specification (usually in the final part of the content of the invention or the specific embodiment), and to use the "scarecrow" tactic to put a technical solution with technicality or technical vocabulary in the front to challenge the examiner.
Moreover, in the later substantive examination, it is possible to decide whether to submit a request for divisional application based on the results of unity examination, inventiveness examination, etc., and one of “gold standards” to expect whether the divided technical solution has a patented prospect is the IPC classification result of the parent case.
Tip 7. Benefit from "incorporation by reference"
The term "incorporation by reference" as used herein is different from that commonly involved in the PCT patent application. The term "incorporation by reference" as mentioned by the author refers to the introduction of known technical prior art applications in the same or similar fields that have been authorized in China into the background part of the specification during its writing, and in the later substantive examination, auxiliary arguments can be made using the technical nature of these granted patents that have been previously recognized.
According to the author's own practice, “pre-planting" the seeds of life by means of "incorporation by reference" in the process of writing the specification sometimes takes the effect of "returning to life" in the later substantive examination process.
Tip 8. Strike a balance between "technology" and "creation"
Regarding the invention of SBAIN, in many cases, the examination of technical solution and the examination of inventive step are difficult to separate from each other, but the more is "you have me, I have you". Therefore, the author suggests a balance in the composition of technical solution and the embodiment of inventive step. In particular, it is to weigh up how many technical features are specifically introduced in the technical solution to be protected by the claims. That is to say, the two are mutually balanced to some extent, which requires careful weighing and deliberation by the draftman, and it is also related to the actual situation of the specific case.
For example, it is preferable to prepare "technical features" for embodying inventive point in the process of writing the specification and claims, and to prepare other less important technical features and other non-technical features in dependent claims and the specification for example.
Tip 9. Attach importance to "drawings"
The inventiveness of the drawings is self-evident in the writing of ordinary invention-creations, and clear drawings can not only be used to embody the essence of the invention, but also better help the examiner to affirm the technicality of the SBAIN invention.
Here, the author suggests that at least the first drawing, such as Fig. 1, be embodied as a configuration of hardware-like system, and such a system configuration is best embodied in a three-layer system architecture (turn back to tip 2). According to the author's actual experience, the number of drawings of system hardware class, for example, the system hardware configuration embodied in different application scenarios, is as good as possible.
Tip 10. Do "prevention" better
Responding to the tips mentioned above, the strategy of embedding as many technical terms as possible in the process of writing the specification is always better than arguing inventiveness contribution with technical solutions or technicality by modifying and/or stating observation in the later substantive examination.
According to the author's incomplete statistics, the attention, change and even sublimation of the specification writing process in various aspects can effectively enhance the authorization rate of SBAIN invention and the protection of authorized patents.
Of course, the experience and skills in writing the SBAIN invention are not limited to the above-mentioned tips, and how to apply these and other tips more flexibly is inseparable from the creative height of the SBAIN invention, and more inseparably from the understanding and summarizing of a draftman to the technical solution of the invention.
(Author: YANG Jiping)
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