Did You Know?

According to the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology, China plans to:

• complete 380 important national standards until 2010;

• lead development of 30-40 international standards having strong bearing on industrial development in China.

Centers for Helping IPR Holders In China

According to the Chinese Patent Office (SIPO), China is going to open 100 centers for assisting intellectual property right (IPR) Holders there.

44 centers have already been approved since the launch of the program in November 2007.

According to a document regulating the program, Guiding Opinion on Developing Assistance in Enforcing IPRs, "any qualifying Chinese citizen, legal person or other organization may request for assistance from a center subject to the prescribed conditions and protocols".

Even though there are more than one billion people in China and that number might mitigate the number of centers, I woud be curious to know how many centers we have in North America.

Do you think we have enough resources for assisting inventors or corporations? What should be done?

A Consortium Against Patent Trolls?

well, not a consortium per se, but a start-up.

RPX Corp, has been launched for helping companies to deal with patent risks. More precisely, the start-up will acquire patents to avoid them from being used by the bad guys. In order to benefit from the pool of patents, a membership fee must be paid to the start-up.

The membership fee is between $35,000 to $4.9 millions and IBM and Cisco Systems are already members.

According to their website, the start-up has already over 150 patents and 60 patent applications.

Links of Interest:
Wall Street Journal
TechFlash

For Any IPR Complaints, Please Dial 12312

No this is not a joke, Changzhou City of the Jiangsu Province has opened a complaint hotline with the number 12312. According to the news release, the hotline is used "for transferring reports and complaints of cases that infringe IPRs such as patents, trademarks and copyrights, tracking and summarizing the handlings of IPR-infringement cases, popularizing information on IPR protection and supplying legal consultation and comprehensive services to right holders and the social public on IPR protection."

I have to admit that this is a very ambitious project. Let's hope that the reports and the complaints will be then handled properly and diligently.

Find Prior Art, Get A Reward

Article One Partners, a global research community, provides compensation to "advisors" for submitting prior art evidence for selected patents (list of the selected patents).
Those selected patents may already be at the center of a litigation or a dispute.

According to their website it is possible to get up to 50k$. Moreover, active "advisors" may further share about 5% of their net annual profit depending on their involvement in the project.

According to their website (link), the two revenue streams are:

1. The selling of the prior art collections directly to parties interested in the subject patent(s).
2. The executing of "market trades based on the expert analysis and opinions drawn from our Advisors' research".

Prior joining the project, you might want to consider you might want to consider that.

Good News: They Are Looking For You!

This is very positive, IP firms are hiring according to Law.com (link)!

Facebook Sued For Patent Infringement

According to this, Facebook is sued by Leader Technologies for infringement of U.S. Patent No. 7,139,761.The patent generally relates to a data management tool.
According to the press release, Leader Technologies seeks:

• damages and
• an injunction against Facebook for its willful infringement.

Other Links:
Techdirt
VentureBeat

Beware Of Illegal Patent Agencies In China

According to the Chinese Patent Office (SIPO), the city of Lianyungang City has recently launched a special action against illegal patent agencies.
According to the report, the special action will last until the end of 2008 and the idea is to crack down on the illegal practices of the "patent agencies" without Registration Certificate of Patent Agency and Practicing Certificate of Patent Agent that operate without authorization.

With the increase of filings in China, a new market has been created for imposters. More than ever, firms outside China should be very careful when sending mandates there.

IP Information Resources In Europe

Ip4inno, a project funded by the European Commission, has on its website (link) a lot of resources for helping small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to enhance their understanding and use of intellectual property rights.

Topics covered include:

• Patent basics,
• Soft IP,
• Commercialization of IP,
• IP enforcement.

Patent Offshoring Facts: Did You Know?

• For 2007, revenues from patent service offshoring in India were about 46M$ and should be quadrupled by 2012.
• There are about 50 providers employing around 1550 professionals.
• The current addressable value of the patent services offshoring market is estimated at $2.2 b. (source)

Will the USPTO and all other patent offices suffering backlog also consider outsourcing?

Annual Practitioner Fee At The USPTO

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has announced (link) a new annual practitioner maintenance fee rules for individuals recognized to practice in patent cases (link to Federal Register Notice).

Active patent practitioners will be required to pay a $118 annual practitioner maintenance fee starting in 2009. This is far less than a patent maintenance fee!

In Canada registered patent agents also pay an annual practitioner maintenance fee to the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO), but it is far more expensive: CA350$!

Will Bilsky Stop "Business Method" Patents In The US?

I have just co-authored an article on that topic with one of my partners. It is available there (link).

Apple Sued In China

According to People's Daily Online (link), Apple is sued in China for patent infringement.

Cai Yaohua and Chen Shaohua, two individuals from Beijing, claim that their patent granted in 2002 for an intelligent audio server is "the basic patent for other modern products such as MP3s and MP4s". "they think that the iPod Series sold by Apple, Apple Computer Trading (Shanghai) and Wuhan COODOO Trading Company has infringed on their patent".

The EPC Welcomes the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

The Europan Patent Office (EPO) has announced (link) that the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia accedes to the European Patent Convention (EPC). This will not be effective until January 1, 2009. At that time the EPC will comprise 35 member states:

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkey and the United Kingdom.

First International Software Standard Made in China Approved

According to the Chinese Patent Office (SIPO) (link), the International Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) has approved the China Electronics Standardization Association (CESA) Unstructured Operation Markup Language (UOML).

This is the first international standard developed in China.

It is known that China is investing a lot of energy in developing its own local standards (link). For instance, in the past it has already announced the launch of its own HD-DVD standard (link).

Developing (and imposing) a local standard has a lot of advantages:

• It can potentially help avoiding licensing existing standards and therefore reducing the manufacturing cost of products,
• It complicates the penetration of the local market by foreigners,
• It may be the source of licensing revenues.

Assessing Inventive Step In Europe

Canada, US and Europe have each their own way to deal with inventive step (or non-obviousness in North America).

In Europe, Article 52 (EPC) states:

(1) European patents shall be granted for any inventions, in all fields of technology, provided that they are new, involve an inventive step and are susceptible of industrial application.
(2) The following in particular shall not be regarded as inventions within the meaning of paragraph 1:
(a) discoveries, scientific theories and mathematical methods;
(b) aesthetic creations;
(c) schemes, rules and methods for performing mental acts, playing games or doing business, and programs for computers;
(d) presentations of information.
(3) Paragraph 2 shall exclude the patentability of the subject-matter or activities referred to therein only to the extent to which a European patent application or European patent relates to such subject-matter or activities as such.

In Europe the "problem-solution approach" is an important concept when dealing with inventive step.

The EPO has an interesting online presentation (link) on the "problem-solution approach".
Watching this presentation is useful for the patent practitioner who is drafting PCT applications that may enter regional phase in Europe.

FTC Will Hold Hearings On IP

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has announced (link) that it will hold a series of public hearings beginning on December 5, 2008, in Washington, D.C., to explore the evolving market for intellectual property (IP).
According to the agenda the following topics will be addressed:

1. Developing business models
2. Recent and proposed changes in remedies law
3. Legal doctrines that affect the value and licensing of patent

It is worth noting that the hearing are open to the public. A live webcast will also be available the day of the event (link).

The Urge For Tech Transfer in Cleantech

Wen Jiabao, China's premier has recently urged rich nations to transfer greenhouse gas emissions-curbing technology to China and other developing countries.(link)

According to Wen Jiabao "The international community should establish a fund and mechanism for overcoming technology transfer barriers".

He added that "As the global financial crisis spreads, the international community must not waver in its determination to tackle climate change".


However according to the report, "China is confident that it will reach the goals of:

• cutting per unit GDP energy consumption by 20 percent; and
• reducing emission pollutants by 10 percent from 2006-10".

Conclusion:

With a motivation clearly shown and a couple of trillions in its pockets, China has now everything for getting the right technologies. Patent holders in those technologies should therefore appreciate it and consider moving forward in the licensing direction since this might be the source of great business opportunities.

A Brand Estimated At $67.5B

An interesting article (link) by Michael Burns on Coca-Cola logo.

Did You Know?

1. The Coca-Cola brand is the most famous one in the world and is worth $67.5B.
2. Santa Claus is not an invention of Coca-Cola.
3. The famous drink was invented in 1886 by John Pemberton and started life as Pemberton’s French Wine Coca. However, "in response to local prohibition laws, a non-alcoholic version developed and a new name was created by Pemberton’s partner Frank Mason Robinson".

Government Patents Got Auctioned

The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has announced (link) that it has successfully partnered with Ocean Tomo Federal Services to commercialize NASA-funded technologies.

The plan is that Ocean Tomo Federal Services offers the right to license NASA’s technologies through its IP transaction platforms. Over 40 different technologies will be offered for commercial application.

NASA has already got licensed at an auction held last month a portfolio of ten U.S. patents and one domestic patent application for a method and system used to analyze nonlinear, non-stationary signals, known as the Hilbert-Huang Transform (HHT).

This was the first ever sale of a government patent license through a public auction of intellectual property.

Gaps in Data Coverage?

The retrieval of data from Chinese patent rights has been identified as one of the most difficult task for obvious reasons. Unfortunatelly, it cannot be ignored since it is key for ensuring that the entire IP system works and maintains the highest standards of quality.

This presentation on Chinese Patent Information (link) identifies some gaps in the data available and provides some suggestions. This is worth reading for understanding the limits of data searches in this jurisdiction.

How To Search East Asian Patent Databases?

With a large amount of applications filed in Asia (over 50% of all patent applications filed worldwide are writen in Japanese, Korean or Chinese according to the presentation), it becomes now more and more pertinent to be able to efficiently search patent databases in those jurisdictions.

Ms Irene Schellner of the EPO has recently made an interesting presentation (link) which gives some pertinent tips for searching those databases.

Backing Loans With IP in China?

According to a post on the Chinese Patent Office (SIPO) (link), Commercial banks in China are accepting more and more IP as collaterals for loans for Small and Medium Enterprises (SME).

In one case, the conditions are:
-a "good credit";
-total assets of no more than 40 million yuan; and
-annual sales of no more than 30 million yuan.

Still in this case, each company is allowed to ask for a maximum of 10 million yuan with a maturity of three years.

Did You Know?

A registered community design can provide an applicant with an exclusive right in 27 countries in a single filing for the outward appearance of a product or part of it, resulting from the features of the product itself and/or its ornamentation. (more info there)

Innovation In Wild Markets

An interesting article from the New York Times (link) about innovation.
How should companies handle promoting, generating and managing innovations in our current economic downturn?

Selected Quotes:

• “Our biggest challenge right now is fear”.
• “The worst thing that a company can do right now is go into hibernation, into duck-and-cover."

E-learning Content on Intellectual Property

Thanks to the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), the Korea Invention Promotion Association (KIPA) and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), a program entitled IP Panorama has been created to provide basic information on Intellectual Property.

Multimedia presentations are available on various topics such as for instance: Trademarks, Industrial Designs, Patents, Copyrights, IP Audits, etc. This is a great resource for individuals looking for basic informations on those topics.