Posts Tagged: "global ip system"

How China Will Fundamentally Change the Global IP System

Currently, the massive volume of filings at the Chinese Patent Office (CNIPA) exceeds the filings of the next four most active patent offices combined. It portends a rapid shift to Chinese language prior art being the repository of technical teachings around leading edge technologies for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. This will happen for several reasons and much more rapidly than…

Where is the value and opportunity in the patent industry?

Where is there currently value and opportunity in the patent industry? That is the question I asked a panel of experts recently. Not surprisingly, several of the experts who responded identified global markets as where opportunities currently exist, which is not surprising given the weakening of the U.S. patent system over recent years and a concerted effort by European and Chinese leaders to strengthen their respective patent regimes and marketplaces. Several others focus on opportunities that also exist for those companies that strategically view their patent portfolios and innovations as doorways to new markets as part of a growth strategy.

It’s Time to Fix the Global Patent System Before It Breaks Under the Weight of New Applications

Patent offices are failing to keep up with the growth of the innovation economy and the resulting increase in patent applications. Unfortunately, the problem could easily get worse in coming years. Many patent offices apparently have yet to process applications from recent years, when huge increases in applications have occurred. It’s a problem that threatens to undermine the global patent system, but what’s both encouraging and discouraging by turns is that it’s largely a basic problem of good governance. Many of the solutions to the problem are relatively straightforward. They require the application of sufficient resources and a willingness to hire an appropriate number of examiners and share work between patent offices. These solutions are a matter of political will and effective management, rather than complex policy. Some countries have shown the will to turn things around, and we hope others will follow.

Navigating the ever-changing global IP landscape requires an expert guide

Would you climb Everest without an expert guide? You shouldn’t navigate the global IP landscape without one either. The global intellectual property terrain is becoming increasingly complex. Across the world, the quantity of patent applications has almost doubled since 2000 (source: WIPO), and the largest single contributor, China, reported over 300,000 patents granted in the chemistry sector in 2015 alone, a 30% increase from the year before (source: STN®, database: CAplus?, accessed 2/15/2016). Consequently, having a patent search professional who can work with your team is more important than ever. Being able to efficiently and expertly research the IP considerations that impact key business decisions can you save time and money, while also providing you with invaluable topical and global insight.

A Global IP System at the Crossroads

The challenges to the global IP system, however, go much, much deeper than mere debates over so-called patent trolls or patent quality. The very premises of our intellectual property laws — the economic value of the intellectual property system itself — are now in deep dispute, not only in the U.S. but worldwide. Indeed, global anti-IP sentiment seems to be at its highest level since the late 1860s, when opponents of intellectual property rights succeeded — for a time, at least — in abolishing or weakening the patent systems of several nations around the world.