Second, the patent application and approval
1. Application status of invention patent in high-tech field
According to the classification scheme of high-tech industries (24 small industries) researched and formulated by the Ministry of Science and Technology and the international patent classification (IPC), the comparison table between industrial classification and international patent classification is established (see Annex 1). According to this comparison table, the number of invention patent applications in high-tech industries from 1997 to 1999 is counted (see Table 2). This paper briefly analyzes the situation of inter-industry and domestic patent application.
First, look at the development of the four major industries (see Table 1). In terms of the total amount, it was basically the same in 1997 and 1998, but it decreased in 1999, mainly due to the large decrease in foreign applications (the decrease was about 40%). Domestic applications have maintained a growth momentum, with an average annual growth rate of 14.2%, with a surge of 40% in 1999 compared with 1998, making the applications for invention patents in high-tech fields received by China in 1999 equally divided between domestic and foreign countries; Among them, "computer and office equipment manufacturing" has the fastest growth, with an annual growth rate of nearly 19 percentage points, followed by "electronic and communication equipment manufacturing", with an average annual growth rate of about 17%, which indicates the development of science and technology and the progress of these two industries in owning independent intellectual property rights to some extent. Although domestic applications in high-tech fields have increased by a large margin, they accounted for only about 4% of the total domestic applications in that year, which is still far from the 20% of foreign applications in high-tech fields.
Secondly, look at the development of various industries. As can be seen from Table 2, the industries with the highest number of applications have basically changed little in the past three years. Among them, there are four industries in which the number of domestic applications accounts for more than half of the total number of domestic and foreign applications (the number in 1999): ① "chemical preparation manufacturing" (mainly Chinese patent medicine manufacturing), ② "computer external equipment manufacturing", ③ "biological products manufacturing" and ④ "chemical raw material manufacturing". ① ② The two industries have always maintained great advantages, accounting for about 60% to 80% of the total patent applications at home and abroad; It is particularly noteworthy that in 1999, the number of foreign applications decreased by more than two times compared with the previous year, but the number of domestic applications increased by four times, making nearly 90% of applications in this field domestic, which is of great significance to changing the situation that the biological product technology market is monopolized by foreign patents. But generally speaking, among the applications for invention patents involving high-tech industries accepted by our bureau, those with relatively high technical content, dominant economic competition and international competitiveness are still mainly from abroad.
Finally, look at the application status of major countries in China. This paper takes the United States, Japan, Germany and South Korea, four countries with developed economies and patents, as the objects, and makes statistics on the application status in China during the three years from 1997 to 1999 (see Table 3). Generally speaking, compared with foreign applications to China in that year, the applications from the four countries all accounted for more than half; Especially, "electronic and communication equipment manufacturing" and "computer and office equipment manufacturing" are outstanding, accounting for about 90% of the total number of foreign applications, which has obvious advantages over similar domestic applications. Take the "electronic and communication equipment manufacturing industry", which has the fastest development, the widest application scope and the largest consumer market, as an example. In 1997, the number of domestic applications was only one seventh of that of foreign applications in China (only 35.4% of Japanese applications in China). By 1999, although this situation had improved, foreign applications still accounted for 80%. At present, applications in this field in China are mainly made by Panasonic, Sony, Hitachi and NEC in Japan, Motorola and IBM in the United States, and Samsung and Hyundai in South Korea. These are the major brands that monopolize China’s electronics and communication market today. Although state-owned brands are also striving to expand their market share, they are still at a disadvantage in terms of innovation, market competitiveness and brand awareness.
2. Analysis of invention patent authorization
(1) Analysis and comparison of authorized cumulative quantity
From 1985 to August 18, 2000, there were more than 98,000 applications for ending the examination procedure of domestic invention patent applications, of which more than 21,000 were authorized to be announced. Compared with the number of domestic invention patent applications of more than 145,000, the settlement rate was about 68%.
In contrast, from 1985 to now, there are about 82,000 applications for foreign invention patent applications that have ended the examination procedure, of which more than 31,000 are authorized to announce. Compared with the number of foreign invention patent applications of more than 166,000, the settlement rate is about 50%, of which authorization accounts for 38% of the closed cases and authorization accounts for 19% of the applications.
Judging from the total number of applications and the total authorized amount, domestic invention patent applications account for 46.6% of the total invention patent applications, and foreign invention patent applications account for 53.4% of the total invention patent applications; Domestic invention patents accounted for 40.2% of the total invention patents granted, and foreign invention patents accounted for 59.8% of the total invention patents granted.
(2) Analysis and comparison of hot areas of technological innovation.
From the perspective of authorization rate, there is still a big gap between domestic invention patent applications and foreign invention patent applications. On the whole, although domestic invention patent applications and authorization are at a disadvantage, we still have advantages in some technical fields.
(a) Comparison of ten hot areas of technological innovation
From the statistical results, the top ten IPC categories in the cumulative amount of invention patent authorization in China are (see Table 1):
As can be seen from Table 1, among the top ten IPC categories in China, seven categories not only have a large number of patents granted, but also account for more than 50% of the domestic patents granted, which reflects that these categories have relatively strong technological development strength, active research and development, rapid technological development, and a large share of high-level technological innovation, so there are more new technologies and new products, and the upgrading of new technologies and new products is also faster. For example, in A61, the development of new products and technologies represented by traditional Chinese medicine, health care drugs and cosmetics is very active and of high quality.
Correspondingly, the top ten IPC categories in the cumulative amount of foreign invention patents granted in China are (see Table 2):
As can be seen from Table 2, among the top ten IPC categories of foreign invention patents, five categories are the same as those of domestic invention patents, but the order is different. It shows that in some hot areas, the development trend of domestic science and technology is basically consistent with that of the international community, but it is not synchronized.
(b) Changes in ten hot areas of technological innovation
In recent years, the top ten changes in the cumulative amount of domestic invention patents can better reflect the distribution, development and changes of domestic technological innovations with independent intellectual property rights in the technical field. The following table lists these changes.
As can be seen from Table 3, except that the number of authorization announcements in the first year is too small to be statistically significant, there are only two categories that rank first in the number of authorizations in each year. Before 1994, it was G01, and then it was A61. G01 category has been declining since 1994, and began to disappear from the top ten in 1999, which reflects that the technology development activities of G01 category are weakening in recent years. Before A61 was ranked as the first authorized category in 1994, it basically kept fluctuating among the top ten. After the revision of the patent law in 1992, the restrictions on traditional Chinese medicine and other drugs were liberalized, which was the main reason for A61′ s long-term ranking first.
3. Patent application status
In 2000, our bureau accepted a total of 170,682 applications for three kinds of patents, an increase of 36,443 over the previous year’s 134,239, with a growth rate of 27.1%.
By December 31st, 2000, our bureau had accepted 1,166,427 patent applications. Among them, there are 972,860 domestic patent applications, accounting for 83.4% of the total number of patent applications; There are 193,567 foreign patent applications, accounting for 16.6% of the total number of patent applications.
Since 1994, our bureau has officially become a member of PCT, and as of December 31, 2000, we have received 1,767 international applications. Received 1,709 international application search books and completed 1,299 international search reports; Received 903 requests for international preliminary examination and completed 698 international preliminary examination reports; International applications for entering the domestic stage in China: 59,419 inventions and 19 utility models. In 2000, 746 international applications were received; Received 671 international application search books and completed 364 international search reports; Received 267 requests for international preliminary examination and completed 230 international preliminary examination reports; International applications for entering the domestic stage in China: 15,798 inventions and 4 utility models.
The characteristics of patent applications in 2000 are as follows: (1) According to the number of three kinds of patent applications, there were 51,747 invention patent applications, up 41.0% from 36,694 in the previous year; There were 68,815 applications for utility model patents, up 19.7% from 57,492 in the previous year; There were 50,120 applications for design patents, up 25.1% from 40,053 in the previous year. (2) From the domestic and foreign composition, domestic applications are mainly utility model and design patents, accounting for 81.9%; Foreign applications are mainly invention patents, accounting for 87.0%. (3) judging from the composition of the three kinds of patents, domestic applications for invention patents have developed by leaps and bounds. In 2000, there were 25,346 applications, an increase of 62.5% over the same period of last year, making the number of domestic and foreign applications for invention patents equally divided; Domestic applications for utility models and designs account for more than 90% of the total.
4. Distribution of patent applications by region, industry and country
In 2000, the ranking of domestic patent applications by provinces and cities changed compared with the previous year. The top ten provinces and cities were: Guangdong, Shanghai, Taiwan Province, Beijing, Zhejiang, Shandong, Jiangsu, Liaoning, Sichuan and Fujian.
In 2000, the number of patent applications from domestic industrial and mining enterprises was 45,862, an increase of 40.5% over the previous year’s 32,636; The number of patent applications from domestic colleges and universities was 2,924, an increase of 65.3% over the previous year’s 1,769; The number of patent applications from domestic scientific research institutes was 4,122, an increase of 35.2% over the previous year’s 3,048.
As of December 31st, 2000, there were 105 countries and regions that applied for patents in China. In 2000, there were 71 countries and regions that applied for patents in China, and there were 6 new countries: Vatican (2), Andorra, Dominican Republic, Estonia, Morocco and Vietnam (1 each). The top ten countries and regions in terms of applications are: Japan, the United States, Germany, South Korea, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Italy.
5. Distribution of patent applications in various technical fields
In 2000, according to IPC classification, 116,769 patent applications for inventions and utility models were completed, an increase of 19.5% over the previous year’s 97,753.
Judging from the classification of invention patent applications in 2000, its characteristics are as follows: (1) Applications for medical, dental and cosmetic preparations (A61K) ranked first in the total number of applications for the tenth consecutive year, of which domestic applications accounted for nearly 70%; Applications related to electronic digital data processing (G06F) rank second, and domestic and foreign applications are basically equally divided; (2) The application for peptide and amino acid (C07K) was a hot spot in the growth of domestic applications in 2000, ranking second in the domestic rankings, and the application for drugs (A61K) and electronic digital data processing (G06F) ranked third in the domestic rankings for the fifth consecutive year; (3) The foreign applications are mainly about heterocyclic compounds (C07D), information storage (G11B) and transit switching equipment (H04Q), which account for more than 80% of the total applications.
Since more than 95% of utility model patents are domestic applications, the ranking actually reflects the status of domestic utility model applications: applications for containers or packages for storing or transporting substances (B65D) have been in the first place for eight consecutive years, and applications for valves, ventilation, inflatable devices, etc. (F16K), electronic digital data processing (G06F) and door and window devices, etc. (E06B) are among the best.
6. Examination and approval of patent applications
By December 31st, 2000, China Patent Office had granted a total of 636,385 patents. In 2000, 105,345 patents were granted, up 5.2% from 100,156 in the previous year.
In 2000, 38,290 invention patent applications were published. In 2001, 33,449 requests for actual examination of invention patents took effect. In the substantive examination, 961 applications for invention patents were rejected and 5,820 were withdrawn. 12,683 invention patents were granted, an increase of 66.1% over the previous year’s 7,637.
In 2000, 54,743 utility model patents were granted, a decrease of 2.9% compared with 56,368 in the previous year; 273 cases were rejected and 9,841 cases were withdrawn.
In 2000, 37,919 design patents were granted, an increase of 4.9% over the previous year’s 36,151; 21 cases were rejected and 4,543 cases were withdrawn.
Table 1: Statistics of three kinds of patent applications at home and abroad in 2000 by job and non-job respectively.
Table 2: Distribution of job and non-job applications in China in 2000
Table 3: Distribution of Domestic Job Applications from 1997 to 2000
Table 4: Top Ten Foreign Companies and Enterprises with Applications in 2000
Table 5: Top Ten Colleges and Universities with Domestic Applications in 2000
Table 6: Top Ten Research Institutes with Domestic Applications in 2000
Table 7: Top Ten Industrial and Mining Enterprises with Domestic Applications in 2000
Table 8: Top Ten Provinces and Cities with Domestic Applications in 2000
Table 9: Top Ten Countries with Foreign Applications in 2000
Table 10: Classification of Invention and Utility Model Patent Applications by IPC in 2000
Table 11: the top ten categories of invention patent applications in 2000 according to IPC classification
Table 12: the top ten categories of utility model patent applications in 2000 according to IPC classification
Table 13: Approval Status of Three Kinds of Patent Applications at Home and Abroad in 2000
7. Technical development prospect of biological fertilizer
"Bio-fertilizer" technology refers to the technology that crops get specific fertilizer efficiency by the life activities of organisms. It includes two kinds of inventions: the invention of using organisms to prepare fertilizers and the invention of fertilizer products containing organisms, and the latter invention accounts for the vast majority.
In fact, the research and application of bio-fertilizer in China began shortly after the founding of the People’s Republic of China. At first, leguminous plants were inoculated with rhizobia. In 1950s, autotrophic nitrogen-fixing bacteria, phosphorus bacteria and silicate bacteria were introduced from the Soviet Union. In 1960s, China successfully developed actinomycetes "5406" antibiotic fertilizer and nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria fertilizer. From 1970s to 1980s, VA mycorrhiza made of soil fungi was developed, which improved the phosphorus nutrition conditions of plants and increased water use efficiency. From 1980s to 1990s, China successively applied combined nitrogen-fixing bacteria and bio-potassium fertilizer as seed dressing agents, and recently developed to popularize the application of bio-fertilizer made of rhizobia, nitrogen-fixing bacteria, phosphorus bacteria, potassium bacteria and organic fertilizer as base fertilizer.
Since the implementation of China’s patent law in 1985, the number of patent applications for biological fertilizers has changed as shown in Figure 1.
As can be seen from Figure 1, the patent application for bio-fertilizer increased rapidly in 1991, and now it has reached about 30 patent applications every year. It is believed that with the continuous development of high and new technologies in China, especially biotechnology, and the continuous pursuit of modern agriculture, the number of patent applications for bio-fertilizer will also increase, which will have a far-reaching impact on China’s agriculture.
We believe that the following aspects are the development trends of bio-fertilizer in China at present and in the future:
(1) Development from single biological strain to compound multi-strain
Because the fertilizer efficiency of microbial fertilizer is not the result of single function, it will inevitably develop into the compound of many bacteria. At present, domestic microbial fertilizers tend to combine rhizobia, nitrogen-fixing bacteria, phosphate-solubilizing bacteria, potassium-solubilizing bacteria and other microbial strains to form a variety of synergistic effects by using different mechanisms of different biological strains on crops, so it is inevitable to develop from a single biological strain to a compound multi-strain direction.
(2) Development from inoculants to compound bio-fertilizers.
Because it is difficult to meet the demand of the vast farmland for fertilizer by using effective fungi as inoculants for crop seed dressing fertilizer. Farmland soil is hardened due to the decreasing application of farm manure, which affects the fertility base. This phenomenon has become the biggest obstacle to the further development of agriculture in China. Using biological compound fertilizer composed of microbial fungi and organic fertilizer matrix can greatly increase the beneficial flora in rhizosphere and increase the active organic matter and nutrient elements in soil, which is the mainstream direction of microbial fertilizer in the future.
(3) From single function to multi-function.
Although the mechanism of action on microorganisms in the field of bio-fertilizer has been debated for many years, the basic consensus is that the functions of various microorganisms are not single. For example, some nitrogen-fixing bacteria can not only fix nitrogen, but also inhibit germs, some insecticidal bacteria can also inhibit bacteria, and many soil microorganisms can stimulate plant growth. With the deepening of people’s understanding of bio-fertilizer, it is bound to put forward higher and more comprehensive requirements for this kind of fertilizer, which requires bio-fertilizer to have comprehensive functions such as improving plant nutrition, stimulating growth and inhibiting bacteria. Therefore, in the future, bio-fertilizer should develop in a multi-functional direction, which requires not only its fertilizer efficiency, improving crop quality and appearance, but also its multiple functions such as preventing and controlling crop diseases and insect pests and adjusting crop maturity.
(4) Development from spore-free bacteria to spore-bearing bacteria.
The rhizobia and nitrogen-fixing fungi used in the existing biological fertilizers belong to spore-free fungi. Because Bacillus-free bacteria are not resistant to high temperature and drying, their stress resistance is low, and they are not resistant to storage, so they have to adopt liquid form or adsorb microbial strains in some carriers, such as peat or vermiculite, for convenience of storage and transportation. However, with the continuous expansion of the application scope and the increasing dosage of bio-fertilizers, it is difficult to transport and fertilize liquid or adsorbed bio-fertilizers, especially to commercialize them. In order to change the dosage form of microbial fertilizer, it is necessary to update the strains. The above situation can be avoided by using Bacillus as the strain in the bio-fertilizer. For example, at present, many patent applications have proposed to select Bacillus B.megatherium, Bacillus B.polymyxa and Bacillus B.mucilaginosus. These Bacillus and their variants can withstand high temperature and drought, so the bio-fertilizer containing these strains can be dried into dry powder or formed into particles, so as to be stored for a long time.
With the increasing attention of society to environmental protection and the development of ecological agriculture, China’s bio-fertilizer is bound to develop greatly. More than 70 countries in the world have been vigorously promoting the application of microbial fertilizer, and its application ratio has reached more than half of the total agricultural fertilizer in developed countries in Europe and America, and it is gradually replacing chemical fertilizer products. Although research work has been carried out in China for nearly 50 years, and there are hundreds of manufacturers, its scale, depth, breadth and application have lagged behind developed countries.
8. Nanotechnology Analysis and Prediction
At present, nanotechnology is in a period of rapid development. The number of patent applications for nano-materials and technologies has increased sharply. From the perspective of patent applications in China, there are about 312 in total, of which domestic ones are the main ones. Since 1997, there have been about 149 inventions, including 136 inventions, mainly from scientific research institutes, universities and large enterprises in China. According to the derwent database, there have been a lot of foreign applications for nano-materials and technologies in recent one or two years. The number of applications in several major hot areas in the past 99 years is now counted in Table 1.
Analysis:
A) The number of applications is relatively concentrated in China, the United States, Germany, Japan and South Korea.
B) The contents of the application can be roughly divided into three categories: first, nanomaterials and their developed products; second, preparation methods and devices; and third, the application of nanomaterials. As far as chemistry is concerned, nanomaterials mainly involve the development and application of metals or nonmetals and their oxides, coating compositions, polymer nanocomposites, catalysts, ceramics, alloys, single crystals and medical or cosmetic preparations, and carbon nanotubes.
C) Most domestic applications involve material preparation methods; There are relatively many applications involved in foreign applications.
D) In terms of preparation methods, besides the traditional sol-gel method and pyrolysis method, there are also gas-phase and solid-phase methods, and modern technologies such as radiation, ultrasound and laser are added.
E) The products developed with nano-materials involve various fields, and are concentrated in ceramics, coatings and medical or cosmetic preparations at home and abroad; Foreign applications are higher than domestic ones, such as magnets and optical components.
Forecast:
A) From next year, foreign countries may apply to China in large quantities, mainly focusing on materials, developed products and their applications. At the same time, domestic applications will also increase, mainly focusing on developed products, methods and devices.
B) In the field of organic chemistry, the applications of three kinds of nano-lubricating materials, such as organic macromolecule modified nano-particle lubricating oil additives, solid lubricating coatings for enhancing adhesion, nano-particle reinforced polymer composite materials or reinforced metal-polymer multilayer composite materials, and ultra-thin organic lubricating films, will gradually increase.
C) Recently, the patent application of carbon nanotubes is still a hot spot, and carbon nanotube arrays will make new progress.
D) In the future, applications for promising hydrogen fuel sources, information technology, preparation of nanoparticles with bioactive substances, and nanomaterials that can be used in the fields of pharmacy, medicine and cosmetics will continue to increase.
9. Mobile communication technology analysis and patent application prediction
In recent years, mobile communication technology has developed rapidly, and its patent applications account for a large proportion in China’s communication field. The number of patent applications in 2000 was basically the same as that in 1999. The proportion of patent applications in major countries and regions in 1999-2000 is shown in Figure 1, and the proportion of patent applications in major companies is shown in Figure 2.
From the statistical data, we can see that the number of applications is relatively concentrated in several communication companies in the United States, Japan, Europe and South Korea, such as Nippon Electric, Lucent of the United States, Samsung of South Korea, etc., while the number of applications for mobile communication patents of Chinese communication companies has increased slightly. From the perspective of patented technology, it mainly focuses on power control, diversity reception, switching, terminal equipment and so on.
At present, because communication companies are actively developing the third generation mobile communication products, it is expected that in the future, patent applications such as smart antenna technology, baseband processing, power control technology, switching technology, congestion control, resource allocation and management will be the hot spots of patent applications. In addition, a patent application will also be filed for the small image mobile terminal technology applying the wireless access protocol (WAP).
Therefore, it is expected that the patent application in the field of mobile communication technology is still a hot spot in patent application in China; In the future, the number and proportion of patent applications of domestic communication companies will increase.