Research & Webinars
Here we provide a number of reports and research summaries related to SMEs and innovation. You will find additional materials in our main research section.
Papers, briefs and publications
Laura MacDonald, MD at ASTP-Proton explains the need for a good ecosystem and talks about industry's increasing interest in university research
With over 800 members, ASTP-Proton in The Hague is the largest association in Europe for professionals involved in technology knowledge transfer.
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4iP Council interviews development economist, Xiaolan Fu
Xiaolan Fu is the Founding Director of the Oxford Technology and Management Centre for Development, Professor of Technology and International Development at Oxford University and Fellow at Green Templeton College. She is also the first mainland Chinese citizen to become a tenured professor at the University of Oxford.
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Patent invalidation and legal certainty – What can patent holders expect?
by Prof Ann
Abstract: Germany is one of Europe’s most important patent centres: as regards patent grants and also as regards patent infringements. This may be why the German patent scene in the last two years has been looking at the success rates of nullity suits filed with the German Federal Patent Court (BPatG) – under two different aspects: In 2014, a first legal article concentrated on the problem of lack of legal certainty for patent holders and on investment risks posed by the seemingly boundless possibilities for challenging patents in nullity proceedings. The article called for these risks to be addressed more carefully, not to the least in view of Art 14 German Grundgesetz (GG), which safeguards the right to property. Another article from the same year, motivated more along the lines of innovation theory, took said success rates as a reason to fundamentally criticise patents under the provocative title “Why most patents are invalid”. This article scrutinised both, individual points within the criticism, as well as allegedly far-reaching conclusions regarding patents at large. According to industry reports, these conclusions have been affecting patent value, and they also may pose a threat to the system as such – unjustly so, as this article will show!
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Categories: Patent System and Patent Quality, IP Enforcement
Philips tops the EPO list for patent filing for second consecutive year
Philips has just been named the world’s largest patent applicant at the European Patent Office (EPO) for the second year running. The company is also in the EPO’s top 10 list for patents granted and ranks first in three leading technology fields: ‘Medical Technology’, ‘Electrical machinery, apparatus, energy’ and ‘measurement’.
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Low-Quality Patents in the Eye of the Beholder: Evidence from Multiple Examiners
by 4ip Council
In this paper, the authors propose a new way of measuring patent quality, based on twin patent applications granted at one office but refused at another office, applied to the five largest patent offices. This method allows to distinguish low-quality patents issued because an office has a low standard from patents issued in violation of an office’s own standard, however high or low (so-called ‘weak patents’ in the scholarly literature). The results suggest that quality in patent systems is higher than previously thought; in particular the percentage of ‘weak’ patents is in single digits for all offices, although the U.S. patent office’s performance is poorer than those of Europe and Japan.
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Categories: Patent System and Patent Quality, IP Enforcement
The different patent landscapes of pharma and tech
4iP Council speaks to Dr Dieter Tzschoppe, Director, Joint Cluster Pure & Applied Organic Chemistry (PAOC), European Patent Office (EPO) about the differences between patenting pharmaceutical innovation and high tech innovation and about the EPO’s work maintaining high assessment quality in the face of rising patent demand.
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High quality of Patents in Europe - infographic
by 4iP Council
4iP Council has consolidated available data on patents in Germany in 2015 to provide a fresh picture on invalidity rates. This work takes the shape of an infographic and follows the recent publication of numerous papers by eminent authors radically overturning an assumption that patent invalidity rates in Europe are high. In 2015, just 1 in 17,500 (0.006%) of all patents in force in Germany were declared invalid by a court. Research findings show similar results for patents in other jurisdictions.
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Categories: Patent System and Patent Quality, IP Enforcement, Infographics
How to estimate the value of your patenting: PSA Peugeot Citröen’s experience.
4iP Council speaks to Pierre Gendraud, General Manager of Licensing and Intellectual Property at PSA Peugeot Citröen and Expert in Intellectual Property at the Paris Court of Appeal.
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Intellectual Asset Management (IAM) magazine joins the discussion on patent quality
by Dr. Claudia Tapia
Intellectual Asset Management (IAM) magazine’s Nov/Dec issue features a new article by Claudia Tapia, Director IP Policy at Ericsson and 4iP Council Chair on the importance of patent quality in Europe, how it is achieved and the interpretation of invalidity rates. The article, shared below, examines invalidity rates worldwide and provides a careful empirical examination of patent assessments at the German Federal Patent Court. The evaluation of statistics presented in the article clearly suggests that there is no problem with patent quality patents in Europe. Indeed, the situation is quite the contrary. This article first appeared in IAM issue 80, published by Globe Business Media Group - IP Division. To view the issue in full, please go to www.iam-media.com.
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Categories: Patent System and Patent Quality, SMEs, Intellectual property
Lessons from Huawei v. ZTE
by Rt Hon Professor Sir Robin Jacob, Alexander Milner – October 2016
This paper first summarises the Huawei judgment and what Huawei decides in practice relating to the availability of injunctive relief for SEPs. The principal national case law since the Huawei decision is then reviewed. Finally, some matters left unresolved by Huawei are examined and the authors consider whether further action by the Commission is necessary, including in the context of the pending review of the IPR Enforcement Directive (“IPRED”). The authors consider whether it would be desirable for the European Commission to issue some form of official guidance, notably on the steps that patentees and implementers must take, respectively, to obtain or avoid an injunction in the context of a FRAND dispute.