For many multinational companies, intellectual property rights (IPR) protection is a good way for them to attack their counterparts so as to increase their global market share.

But that is not the case with the IT giant IBM, which uses IPR not only to benefit itself but also other companies.

Last month the company formalized a new corporate policy to manage the creation and management of patents.

Under the new policy IBM will make its patent applications open to community review. And it will promptly and publicly record, in its name, assignment of all the patents and publish patent applications it owns.

"IBM will make available over 100 of its business-method patents - about 50 per cent of IBM's total business method patents - to the public, where they can be used openly to stimulate innovation," says a company statement.

IPR management

As the world's largest IT and business solutions provider, IBM is also the top company in patents worldwide.

To date, IBM has remained as the world's number one owner of technical patents listed by the United States Patent and Trademark Office for 13 years.

It is among the top 10 foreign companies in the field of patent applications, and the only US company in the top 10 list, according to the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO).

The company has developed many technologies to make its proprietary management system for IPR, says Pryor Garnett, assistant general counsel, IBM World Trade Asia.

Under the system it uses an internal worldwide patent tracking system for harvesting and patenting inventions made by its inventors.

"All IBM employees worldwide, of which over 200,000 are technical experts in various fields have access to this world wide tracking system," he says.

IBM also has a patent portfolio management group in its IPR department, which strategically shapes and sizes its patent portfolios country by country.

"We have an award system for our inventors to let them share the benefits of submitting their inventions for patenting and to encourage them to submit and patent more," says Garnett.

"And that award system is also worldwide, and is available to all the people in IBM."

Patent Use

As the largest holder of patents in the United States, IBM has used its patents for many purposes, says Garnett.

"In some areas IBM shares its technologies in exchange for the right to use technologies developed by others, and that serves both us and our cross-licensees well," he says.

Last year, IBM pledged 500 software patents to the public worldwide, including technologies on processor access memory and handwriting recognition. It was the largest grant of patents in US history.

"IBM's practices reflect the reality of the IT industry," says Garnett, "In this industry most products, whether they are hardware or software, use many combinations of inventions in patents. It is very difficult for any company in the industry to use its own technology."

In such a collaborative industry, which is different from some other industries such as the pharmaceutical industry and the chemical industry, IBM believes that openness and collaboration are key to rapid technology development and innovation in the industry.

"Companies in the industry should keep a balance between IPR protection and open co-operation," says David J Kappos, vice president and assistant general counsel of Intellectual Property Law, IBM Corporation. "If a firm wishes to be successful in 10 years, it is really important for them to cooperate in innovation."

"A company's view of IPR should be comprehensive, at one end of the spectrum, IBM rightfully defends its proprietary products, while at the other end, we lead the world in supporting the sharing of IPR when it can drive open standards and collaborative innovation."

Strong environment

As an observer, IBM has seen that since China joined the WTO, it has made significant improvement in its laws and regulations governing IPR.

"We believe China is making visible efforts, which we can also see, to improve its IPR regime, including its legal system, enforcement system, as well as public awareness of IPR," says Garnett.

Although there still exists problems in the IPR enforcement process, Garnett and his staff appreciate the Chinese government's ongoing steps to solve its IPR enforcement problems.

As a big patent applicator in China, IBM has worked well with the Chinese government to improve the IPR regime.

"We now have a very good relationship with SIPO," says Garnett. "We feel that SIPO is doing a fine job in examining and granting patents."

With a tremendous increase in the number of patent applications in China, IBM believes that advanced technology can help patent offices to improve their work.

Recently the company was hired by the German patent office to create a fully electronic system for filing and registering patents and other intellectual property rights.

"We hope this modern technology can help a patent office improve the work flow, to reduce the time spent on patent examination, therefore improving the quality of the Intellectual Property rights it grants," says Garnett.

Patent quality

As a world leader in the IT industry, IBM believes that every company in the industry must understand that IPR can no longer be just a side issue.

"IPRs are increasingly become the centre of companies' business strategies," says Garnett.

"For the Chinese IT companies it has become important to be active in the IPR area, to create and to maintain a patent portfolio with high quality."

China has seen a big increase in patent applications during the past few years. However, among the three categories of patents, patents for inventions accounted for less than 20 per cent of China's patent applications, while in foreign applications over 80 per cent are inventions.

"Patent quality should be a focus for Chinese IT companies," says Garnett.

"The aim of patent protection is to encourage collaborative innovation," says David Kappos, "Patent quality has always been a concern for hi-tech companies in the US."

"Only patents with high quality can bring forth innovation and benefit the public. In our opinion, patents should only be granted to those ideas with real innovation."

(China Daily 10/23/2006 page9)

2013-07-17