Foreign Machine Tool Enterprises' Patent Strategy in China

At present, the world economy is undergoing a profound transformation. China's sustained rapid growth of the economy, huge market potential, low and abundant labor resources, and good infrastructure and supporting capabilities have become a major shift in attracting the world's equipment manufacturing industry. And landing important landlocked emerging markets. At the same time, the domestic machine tool market continues to expand, and it has now become one of the most important and fastest-growing markets in the world. The regional characteristics of patents determine that enterprises can only obtain patent protection in other countries if they apply for a patent in other countries. At the same time, companies applying for patents abroad are an important prerequisite for the implementation of patented technology export strategies, and they are also an important means for enterprises to develop and occupy the international market. . Foreign large-scale machine tool manufacturing enterprises face the reality that the domestic machine tool manufacturing enterprises have continuously improved their technological capabilities. To occupy the domestic high-end product market, they have begun to apply for a large number of patents in China, and make patent arrangements.

I. Basic situation of patent application for foreign machine tool companies in China

In order to have an accurate understanding of the status of patent applications filed by foreign machine tool companies in China, a statistical analysis was conducted on the status of applications for patents in the United States, Germany, Japan, and three major machine tool manufacturers and some companies in China through the Chinese and foreign patent data service platforms of the State Intellectual Property Office. .

1. Foreign machine tool companies accelerate the patent layout in China

Through the statistics and analysis of patent application data of China, Germany, and Japan in the past ten years, it can be seen that in recent years, the overall development trends of the three countries are basically similar, showing an overall upward trend. In 2009, applications for invention patents from abroad decreased by 10.3% compared with 2008, but the machine tool industry still maintained rapid growth. As can be seen from Figure 1, after 2003, the number of patent applications in various countries showed a rapid growth trend, the average annual growth rate of the United States reached 50.9%, Germany 37.1%, Japan 21.5%; in 2009, the United States has applied for patents in China has reached 296, Germany has reached 200, and Japan has reached 481; by the first half of 2010, the United States has applied for 119 patents in China, 105 in Germany, and 201 in Japan.

Japan has the largest number of patent applications in China, almost double that of Germany and the United States. This shows that Japan attaches great importance to the Chinese market and strengthens its patent portfolio in China.

2. New processing methods and materials become the focus of patent filing

(1) In the United States from 2006 to 2009, the number of US patent applications in China reached 897, of which 48% were focused on arc welding or arc cutting, laser beam processing, and materials.

(2) Germany From 2006 to 2009, Germany had applied for 642 patents in China, of which laser beam processing had the largest number of patents, accounting for 150, accounting for 23% of all patents, and was twice that of patents on chucks. It can be seen that in the field of machine tool technology, laser beam processing technology is far ahead of other technologies. At the same time, there is a tendency to go hand in hand with technologies such as chucks, machine parts including components, tailstocks, and machine tool accessories.

(3) Japan From 2006 to 2009, Japan had applied for a total of 1993 patents in China, of which 660 laser beam processing patents, accounting for 33%, followed by arc welding or arc cutting and materials, respectively. To 15% and 10%.

Comprehensive information on the applications for patents in China by the United States, Germany, and Japan can be seen in:

First, in the development of the past five years, Japan has applied for the largest number of patents in the area of ​​machine tools, accounting for 1993 items, even larger than the sum of US and German patent applications. This is because, in recent years, Japanese machine tool companies have attached great importance to technological innovation, especially electronic information technology has achieved many leading scientific research results in the application of numerical control machine tools, making CNC machine tools of a group of famous Japanese machine tool manufacturers high speed, compound, intelligent and environmental protection. In other areas, it maintains an advanced level and occupies an important position in the world's machine tool industry.

Secondly, from the perspective of the distribution of patent subdivisions, the three countries have roughly the same degree of patent concentration in terms of machine tools, focusing mainly on laser beam processing, arc welding or arc cutting, materials, and chucks. It can be seen that these three aspects are the focus of development in recent years or even later.

3. Foreign large companies are the main force of patent applications

From the fact that Germany's TRUMPF, DMG, Japan's Yamazaki Mazak, Otsuka, Mori Seiki, and other five major machine tool companies in China have applied for patents in China, the average number of patent applications for these machine tool manufacturers in China has reached 50. The authorized average reached 21 items. Among them, TRUMPF's number of patent applications in China reached 46, and the number of authorizations reached 6. The number of patent applications filed by Yamazaki Mazak in Japan reached 86, and the number of patents granted for invention reached 52.

Second, foreign companies to China patent strategy

Before 2006, China gradually formed an intellectual property system, but the fundamental reason was the need for China’s reform and opening up and the need for China’s development of a socialist market economy. Judging from the history of the legislation, the strategy of intellectual property rights is formulated around the needs of reform and opening up to adapt to international trade and international exchanges, rather than the call for technological innovation. In 2006, after the central government proposed the strategic concept of building an innovative country, China's intellectual property strategy has changed from an early objective adaptation to the development of the manufacturing industry to a new stage of subjective role in the development of manufacturing innovation. In particular, the implementation of major national science and technology projects has prompted foreign governments and enterprises to start formulating patent strategies for China and put them into practice.

1. Highlight the role of the government in the strategy of intellectual property

Multinational corporations have long considered the development strategy of intellectual property as an important part of their development strategy. This is the basis and foothold for developed countries to formulate their intellectual property development strategies. The U.S. government continuously revised and improved the traditional intellectual property legislation such as the Patent Law, the Copyright Law, the Trademark Law, etc. based on the national interest and the competition needs of U.S. companies, and actively promoted the implementation of the WTO's Intellectual Property Rights Agreement (TRIPS) so that the U.S. A set of intellectual property rules conducive to leading countries such as the United States has been formed to squeeze the technological innovation space of Chinese local companies, lift the platform for China's technological innovation, and limit China's technological innovation and development.

2. Build a patent barrier

Internationally renowned transnational corporations have become exemplary models for the use of patents, and their attention to patent strategies has reached an unprecedented height. Under the conditions of global patent protection integration, with patents, we have a global market. Patents constitute an invisible legal protection of the market. Who owns the core patent is to seize the commanding heights of the industry, which means that if others want to produce products that meet this kind of patent, they will encounter patent containment. In recent years, the number of patent applications filed by foreign machine tool companies in China has increased significantly. By “staking races”, patents have been registered in China and patents have been formed on China’s products, and patent barriers have been built to limit the development of China’s technology.

3. Fundamental core patents are not transferred

China's CNC machine tool industry is mainly developed through the introduction of technology and equipment imports. Since the 1980s, China has introduced several CNC systems and servo technologies from the United States, Japan, Italy, and Germany, and successively developed a number of 70s. At the end of the 1980s, the CNC system at the beginning of the 1980s ended the long-term stagnation of the development of CNC machine tools in China and promoted the development of the CNC machine tool industry in China. The industrial chain of CNC machine tools was basically formed.

In the 1990s, Western countries severely restricted the export of high-end CNC machine tools. It is difficult for China to introduce foreign core technologies and key components. It has become a normal practice for foreign countries to restrict exports of high-end CNC machine tools in China.

III. Measures to deal with foreign patent strategies

(1) Government-led implementation of intellectual property strategy must be based on enterprises, government-led, and patent strategies should be elevated to the national level. The government must assume the leading role of guiding implementation, and even directly exercise the rights granted by the law to the government. Property rights and trade rules protect the interests of domestic companies. This is one of the most important functions of government under market economy conditions. We will continue to build a legal foundation for protecting our national interests and accumulate long-term experience and capabilities in using intellectual property to achieve strategic advantages.

(2) Forming a defensive intellectual property alliance against foreign companies’ patents that are common to domestic companies, establishing a platform for mutual trust among domestic enterprises, establishing a reasonable mechanism for the alliance, increasing the overall competitive chips in the domestic industry, and Competition for defensive counterattacks. Through active patent invalidation and organizational authorization, China successfully prevented the layout of foreign companies and avoided the impact of industrial safety.

(3) To improve the ability to grasp and use intellectual property rights China's machine tool manufacturing enterprises should consider intellectual property rights from a strategic perspective, implement the “peripheral patent” strategy, increase patent negotiation bargaining through non-core technology patent applications, and actively promote discrete patents. The transition from combined patents, peripheral patents to core patents, domestic patents to domestic and foreign patents.

(4) Vigorously support the overseas M&A of enterprises with intellectual property as their goal. For mergers and acquisitions where the company acquires intellectual property such as patents, trademarks and trade secrets, and for acts of introducing intelligence or using foreign intelligence, the state shall make financial and taxation decisions. And financial support.

(5) Establish a basic database of intellectual property rights To establish a basic database of machine tool industry intellectual property rights, and provide services for independent innovation strategy and independent intellectual property rights strategy; establish an industry intellectual property tracking system and establish targets for product categories and technical fields. The patent documentation database provides direction for the independent innovation of China's machine tool companies.

(6) Strengthening the management and early warning of intellectual property rights Establish a unified mechanism for the declaration of intellectual property rights, and the State Intellectual Property Office will open up a green channel for intellectual property (patent) approval in the machine tool industry to accelerate the IPization, commercialization and industrialization of industrial innovation achievements. . At the same time, the establishment of information reporting mechanism to carry out industrial intellectual property early warning work.