About patent applications

Last year, the company's Legal Affairs trained us on basic patent application knowledge. Last week, the Group invited our colleagues from our partner Beijing law firm to provide us with in-depth training; the following are some of the principles and Notes mentioned in the training. I believe they will be helpful to my colleagues who wish to apply for a patent later;

1. Patents have no size or complexity, and are related to their market value.

In essence, a company applies for a patent to protect its position and interests in the market. If a patent has no market value, it is almost useless; A small patent may bring great market value, and a complicated patent may not bring direct value and benefits to the company;

2. Patent Applications follow three principles: market principles, technical principles, and cost principles.

As mentioned above 1st, patents are directly linked to market value interests. Therefore, when applying for a patent, the first consideration is the market. If a patent can foresee market value, you should apply without hesitation;
The second is the technical principle. Patent Applications must solve the problem that is very common, new problems, or new results. That is to say, you have adopted a better method to solve the problem, achieved better results;
Finally, it is the cost principle. Because patent applications require costs and are not free of charge, companies or individuals should try their best to apply for applications with higher market value, rather than spreading the Internet in an all-round way, avoid wasting resources whenever possible;

3. Reduce creative thinking for technical personnel

This is mainly for our R & D personnel or technical personnel. In our subconscious, we still feel that patents are very sacred, I always thought about whether my application was very technical. If I had no technical skills, I felt embarrassed to apply! In fact, this is misleading. A more worry-free approach is: as long as you use a new method to solve new problems, or produce new results, you should first apply, then let the Legal Department decide whether or not this is worth a patent;

4. Fast

In fact, a lot of people or companies are trying to solve the same problem. The key is to see who thinks first! If you think of it first, but you have not applied for it, you will miss the opportunity;

5. Minimize patent abstraction and control granularity

Because the full cover policy is used to determine whether a patent is infringing, that is, full coverage is required. Therefore, a patent should be controlled as much as possible, and a patent should not solve many problems, in this way, it is easy for others to turn empty, so as to bypass your patent;
A product usually contains many patents:The patent is a point, the product is a face;