港媒：中国补贴可能导致低质量专利泛滥

专家警告称，中国的补贴可能导致大量低质量的专利

中国在2019年的国际专利数量上超过美国，申请了将近59,000件

去年，中国提交的国际专利总数可能已经超过美国，但是法律专家警告说，这种增长的很大一部分是由国家支持的补贴推动的，这些补贴可能会使廉价专利充斥整个系统。

世界知识产权组织（WIPO）最近报告说，中国根据专利合作条约（PCT）提交的专利申请总数为58,990件，而美国为57,840件。联合国机构还强调，中国的数字在短短20年内增长了200倍。

中国的科技巨头尤其活跃，去年华为以4,411项专利申请名列榜首。根据《区块研究》（The Block Research）的一份报告，就区块链而言，去年中国互联网巨头腾讯和阿里巴巴合计占该技术专利申请的20％以上。

阿里巴巴是《南华早报》的母公司。

Rouse＆Co的知识产权律师，香港大学法学副教授道格·克拉克（Doug Clark）表示，中国不太可能放慢PCT申请的步伐，因为中国在人均专利申请方面仍大大落后于美国和日本。

中国在2010年超越日本成为世界上最大的国内专利持有人，但在意识到这些专利没有太多价值之后，中国政策制定者便开始激励国际专利，这些专利通常要经过更严格的审查并具有更大的价值。

尽管人们普遍认为，更多专利正在帮助改善该国的知识产权记录（这一敏感问题一直是推动中美科技战争的一个因素），但一些人担心政府的补贴会鼓励更多低质量的专利。

JZMC专利和商标律师事务所和彭博社在2018年进行的一项研究发现，在中国，只有不到四分之一的国内新专利是新发明，其余为外观设计和实用专利。此外，近91％的新外观设计专利在五年内被废弃，因为专利所有人显然认为它们不值得续展。

香港科技大学公共政策副教授瑙巴哈尔·谢里夫（Naubahar Sharif）认为，中国专利被认为比日本或美国的专利价值低的另一个迹象是，非中国研究人员对中国专利的引用较少。

为应对大量低价值的国内专利，上海市政府去年将国际专利申请的最高年度补贴从100万元人民币（14.2万美元）提高到1000万元人民币。上海的新政策还削减了对外观设计和实用新型专利的补贴。

北京市政府在同年采取了类似的做法。PCT专利申请者现在可获得最高2000万元人民币的补贴，而国内专利可获得200万元人民币的补贴。

香港大学知识产权法助理教授赖恩·沃伦（Ryan Whalen）表示，中国对PCT专利申请的补贴鼓励个人和公司仅对专利技术进行微不足道的改进-重复国内专利中的错误。

他说：“如果潜在的知识产权很有价值，其本身的专利应该是促使个人或公司申请专利的充分诱因，而补贴实际上冒着扭曲这些诱因的风险。”

克拉克说，中国的大多数专利申请补贴旨在帮助资金短缺的中小型公司，而不是大型科技公司。因此，他认为，大型科技公司所申请的专利数量激增，表明中国的技术实力日渐增强，并且在电信和生物技术等领域也发生了重大变化。

谢里夫说，专利补贴政策正在推动中国的创新，反过来，也将为中国专利逐步向价值链上游发展提供动力。

华为在向《华盛顿邮报》发表的一份声明中说，华为在PCT申请方面的领先地位是由该公司“对研发的一致投资”推动的，占其收入的10％至15％。

声明说：“自2002年以来，华为在专利申请数量上一直领先于中国公司，与其他跨国公司不相上下。”

关于补贴问题，华为表示这是各国共同的做法，并且“像其他专利申请者一样，享受了中国专利申请政策的支持。”

腾讯和阿里巴巴没有立即回复置评请求。

Dunlap Bennett＆Ludwig的专利诉讼人埃里克·罗宾逊（Erick Robinson）表示，中国专利激增的另一个因素是知识产权法院体系日益健全，从而提高了中国法院专利的价值。

“专利的唯一价值在于您可以获得更多的钱，通过许可和诉讼获得专利。”罗宾逊说。 “我认为，与在美国相比，现在在中国，您可以从许可和诉讼中获得更多收益。”

“人们仍然认为，在中国，您可以轻松摆脱侵权，但事实是，情况已不再如此。”

封图来源：Pexels

排版、编辑：知识产权进行时

China may have overtaken the US in total number of international patents filed last year, but legal experts warn that much of the growth is being fueled by state-backed subsidies that could flood the system with cheap patents.

The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) recently reported that the number of filings by China under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) totaled 58,990 last year, compared with 57,840 from the US. The UN agency also highlighted that China’s figure was a 200-fold increase in just 20 years.

China’s tech giants have been particularly active, with Huawei taking the top spot last year with 4,411 patent applications. And when it comes to blockchain, Chinese internet giants Tencent and Alibaba together accounted for over 20% of patent filings for that technology last year, according to a report by The Block Research.

Alibaba is the parent company of the South China Morning Post.

Doug Clark, IP lawyer from Rouse & Co and adjunct professor of law at the University of Hong Kong, said China is unlikely to slow its pace of PCT filings because the country still significantly lags behind the US and Japan in terms of patents filed per capita.

China overtook Japan as the world’s biggest holder of domestic patents in 2010 but, after a realization that those patents do not hold much value, Chinese policymakers moved to incentivize international patents which are typically subject to much more rigorous examination and hold more value.

While the consensus is that more patents are helping improve the country’s record on intellectual property rights – a sensitive issue that has been one factor fueling the US-China tech war – some are concerned that the government subsidies encourage more low-quality patents.

A study by JZMC Patent and Trademark Law Office and Bloomberg in 2018 found that less than a quarter of new domestic patents in China were new inventions, with the rest being design and utility patents. Further, nearly 91% of new design patents wound up being discarded in five years because patent owners apparently deemed them not worthy of renewal.

Another indication that Chinese patents are deemed less valuable than those in Japan or the US is that they receive fewer citations by non-Chinese researchers, according to Naubahar Sharif, associate professor of public policy at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

In response to the huge numbers of low value domestic patents, the Shanghai government last year raised the maximum annual subsidy for international patent filings from 1 million yuan (US$142,000) to 10 million yuan. Shanghai’s new policy has also cut subsidies for design and utility patents altogether.

The Beijing government adopted a similar approach in the same year. A PCT patent filer is now entitled to as much as 20 million yuan in subsidies versus 2 million for a domestic patent.

Ryan Whalen, assistant professor of IP law at the University of Hong Kong, said China’s subsidies for PCT patent filings encourage individuals and companies to patent technologies with only marginal improvements – repeating the mistakes made in domestic patents.

“Patents in and of themselves, if the underlying intellectual property is valuable, should be a sufficient incentive to push individuals or firms to apply for a patent,” he said, “Subsidies are really running the risk of perverting those incentives.”

Clark said most patent filing subsidies in China were aimed at helping cash-strapped small and medium sized companies – rather than big tech corporations. As such, he believes the spike in the number of patents filed by big tech companies is a sign of China’s growing technological prowess and the major shifts taking place in areas such as telecommunications and biotechnology.

Sharif said that the patent subsidy policies were fueling innovation in China and that, in turn, would create momentum for Chinese patents to gradually move up the value chain.

In a statement to the Post, Huawei said its lead in PCT applications was fueled by the company’s “consistent investment in R&D,” which represents 10% to 15% of its revenue.

“Huawei has been leading Chinese companies in the number of patents filed since 2002, rivaling other multinational companies,” the statement said.

On the issue of subsidies, Huawei said it was a practice common to various countries and that it has “enjoyed the support of China’s patent filing policies just like other patent filers.”

Tencent and Alibaba did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Erick Robinson, patent litigator at Dunlap Bennett & Ludwig, said another factor in China’s patent surge was the increasingly robust IP court system that has bolstered the value of patents in Chinese courts.

“Patents are only valuable in that you can get more money out of a patent through licensing and litigation,” Robinson said. “I’d argue that you can get more money out of licensing and litigation in China now than you can in the United States.”

“People still have this perception that you can easily get away with infringements in China but the reality is that it is no longer the case.”

(Abacus is a unit of the South China Morning Post.)