Provide an international platform for the exchange of patent information

Launched in 2010, PIAC has now developed into the annual patent information event in Asia. This annual information brought together 1,500 representatives from more than 10 overseas government agencies and organizations, including the United State Patent and Trademark Office, European Patent Office, Japan Patent Office, Korean Intellectual Property Office and World Intellectual Property Organization, as well as over 500 domestic and overseas well-known enterprises.

According to the introduction from the staff of the Intellectual Property Publishing House, one of the event organizers, this annual meeting embodies three different features when compared with the past three annual meetings. The first was to introduce the system of “China Patent Information Conference + PIAC Membership,” to establish long effective communication mechanism, to update periodically the relevant patent information and to hold member activities monthly. A second change was the profound interpretation of the standpoints of the guest speakers and the in-depth understanding displayed by the enterprise and the relevant participants on the lecture topics, which helped compensated for the minimal turnout of guests at the grounds of the event. Finally, the third major shift was to focus on the patent system and the practices of patent information utilization seen in three of the more developed regions participating in the event: Europe, America and Japan. These changes reflect the fact that Chinese enterprises are becoming more and more important in the international patent layout, as Chinese enterprises are increasingly involved in competition throughout the international market. The better Chinese enterprises, especially innovation-oriented enterprises, know about the international rules, the better they can participate in the competition between international industries.

Focus on hot issues concerning enterprises

Considering the numerous appeals for IP content from different industries, information on enterprises in China and the need for current information on the status of domestic and overseas IP, over 50 typical government speakers and enterprises guests received invitations to this annual meeting. Noted speakers and guests included Hu Jingshan, Vice President and Head of Innovation Center China at Bayer Healthcare and Reiner Grabowsk, Head of Patent Analysis Department at Novartis International AG. They both talked about the significance of patents and patent information, and their speeches centered on the issue of the “patent cliff” faced by Global pharmaceutical companies. Three other prominent speakers in attendance were Arian Duijvestijn, IP & Standard General Manager at Philip Lighting; Li Fushan, IP director of Tencent Group, and Kwang Jun Kim, Chief IP Officer at Samsung Display. They provided profound insights explaining how patent strategies help support the development of enterprises.

In addition, the breakout sessions are mainly about typical patent lawsuit cases. This attracted heavyweight honored guests in judicial circles from China, US, Germany and Japan. The group delivered wonderful speeches based on the typical patent lawsuit cases of their own countries, patent litigation comparison under the main judicial system in the patent war and etc.

In the session of foreign patent system innovation and information service, Stefan Luginbuehl from EPO international legal office, systematically introduced the basic position of the European unitary patent system and uniform patent court based on the European unitary patent system and the regulation of relevant laws and regulations. Sun Yiming, Founder and Manager of HUASUN Patent Attorneys & Attorneysat- law, elaborated and analyzed the main similarities and differences between European unitary patent system and traditional European patent system. The analysis included issues such as the geography, translation and how courts needed to pay special attention when selecting a unitary patent system or traditional patent system.

In patents evaluation and monetization session, one of the special breakout sessions, the guests discussed the current new models of IP transaction, patent transfer and licensing, patent protection and commercialization, IP pledge and financing and other latest information. Participants included Jeff Draeger, Director for Patent Strategies and Transactions at Intel; James W. Maccoun, IP Counsel at Google Inc.; Dr. Richard Jennings, Deputy Director of Cambridge Enterprise; Gerard Pannekoek, President and CEO of Intellectual Property Exchange International. Inc.; Paul M. Saraceni, Senior Vice President & Chief Intellectual Property Officer at RPX Corporation and other high-level IP figures. They introduced the latest international developments in patent transfer licensing and new models of IP transactions.

In addition, domestic and overseas patent information service providers also participated in the conference. Patent databases and some of the software programs that they developed, which were based on the characteristics of Chinese enterprises, were also published in the PIAC 2013.

Launching market competition for patent databases

Around 2009, the word “big data” started to attract the attention of experts in the information and technology industry, and the opportunities and challenges brought by “big data” era have become the common topics discussed by the public. More and more governments and enterprises are gradually aware of data’s importance. The availability of information necessary to perform patent data analysis is becoming the core area of competitiveness for various organizations.

In PIAC 2013, Intellectual Property Publishing House introduced the most recently developed “China’s Drug Patent Database” outside the area of traditional book publication. One speaker noted that it is worth mentioning that the establishment of the database is the results of the belief in “calmly facing the crucial reality that traditional book publication has been influenced severely by the Internet and actively adjusting the management concept” after its transformation.

In the meantime, the American Chemical Society ( C A S ) and numerous patent data information providers from Europe, Japan, Korea and other countries released the latest version of their competitive products STN (a kind of search engine platform).

What does it mean that international giant, domestic governmental organizations and private enterprises hold optimistic viewpoints on China’s patent database market?

The publicity materials of CAS mentioned that in “taking advantage of the CAS database in STN, China’s patent information service is over 130 days earlier than other patent information services.” Christine McCu, Marketing Director of CAS, explained that its technical advantage ensured that China-related patent information can be cataloged within 50 days, three times faster than its competitors can. She also said that “this is of course based on outdated information, as our competitors are continuously improving their processes and upgrading their speed.”

East Linden, a Chinese enterprise with more than 10 years’ history, stated bluntly that “CAS is extremely admirable. However, the high price is a threshold, while our price advantage can provide services for more Chinese small and medium-sized enterprises.”

As for the challenges from local competitors, McCue held that there were no essential differences between Chinese users and the rest of the world’s users in terms of the demands of IP retrieval and scientific research from the cooperation experience of CAS and Chinese enterprises over the years. Therefore, in the past 5 years, the adjustment of price positioning by CAS aimed to be cost effective so that users from different segments of the market could afford our products and services.

As the annual international patent industry event, PIAC 2013 is the largest scale event of its kind and includes the largest number of foreign organizations and enterprises. The event was based on promoting patent information exchange, keeping up with the latest developments of domestic and foreign patent information utilization and providing an international platform for the exchange of patent information. The PIAC 2013 promoted the wide spread and effective utilization of patent information, improved the ability of patent innovation and applications, and proved the powerful support for enterprise innovation.

(Translated by Stella Yang)