Evolution Stages And Characteristics Of Patent Disputes In China

With the in-depth exploration of the value of patents in recent years,patents have gradually evolved from traditional protective methods into new competitive tools.Patents and patent litigations in the worldwide increased rapidly.Due to the low cost,short period and strong effect of patent invalidation procedures,requests for invalidation of granted patents are also frequently occurred.It means that for a granted patent,if any entity or individual considers it’s not in conformity with the relevant provisions of the Patent Law,can request the Patent Reexamination Board to declare the patent right invalid.Patent litigations and requests for invalidation have increased significantly and been used strategically in recent years,which become a phenomenon worthy of attention in the field of patent.This phenomenon also has a serious negative impact on the operation and technological innovation of enterprises.Therefore,patent litigations and requests for invalidation together are called patent disputes in this article,and an in-depth study on its evolution is conducted.The study explores the long-term evolution process of patent disputes from a dynamic perspective.In addition,by analyzing each evolution stage and its characteristics,so as to provide reference for Chinese enterprises to deal with patent disputes.The literature review is written on the study of patent disputes and the patent analysis methods.On the basis of it,three issues are carried out as follows on the practical problems found.Firstly,the patent dispute degree index(PDDI)is constructed,based on the number of patent dispute cases and the number of patents in dispute.Secondly,using the hierarchical cluster analysis method,and choosing the patent dispute degree index and the number of patents in dispute as the clustering indexes,and quantitatively divides the evolution stages of the dynamic evolution process of patent disputes in China.Thirdly,with the help of patent measurement and patent map,explore the characteristics and differences of the number of patent disputes,relevant subjects and technology in each evolutionary stage.The research on the evolution stage of patent disputes shows that,the evolution process of patent disputes in China can be divided into two stages.Since 1993 is the first year of complete implementation after the first revision of the patent law in China,so choose it as the starting point of analysis.The period from 1993 to 1999 is the first stage,the number of patents in dispute and intensity of patent disputes in China are at a low level.The period from2000 to 2015 is the second stage.As patents continues to increase,the number of patents in dispute also increases rapidly,and the patent disputes in China are becoming more intense.The analysis of each evolution stage shows the following conclusions.In the first stage,the number of patents involved in both patent litigations and requests for invalidation,accounts for 7.9% of the total number of patents in dispute.The number of patents only involved in the procedure,which is for requesting invalidity declaration,accounts for 74.8%.The ratio of patent litigation dispute degree index to patent invalidation dispute degree index is 1.65.The main type of patentees involved in patent disputes is individuals.In the second stage,the proportion of the number of patents involved in both patent litigations and requests for invalidation increases.Although the proportion of the number of patents only involved in the procedure for requesting invalidity declaration decreases,its number of patents shows a rapid growth trend.This shows that the patentee’s strategic use of the requests for invalidation is increasingly intensified.The ratio of patent litigation dispute degree index to patent invalidation dispute degree index is gradually increasing,and the number of patent litigations involving a single patent is also increasing.The main type of patentees involved in patent disputes is enterprises.