Patents with Chinese Characteristics

This morning I woke up to the strains of Pink Floyd coming from our home office. I knew Randy would probably be working at home today because the AQI has been escalating this week. Usually, though, he works quietly at his computer. Hearing Pink Floyd, I knew he had to be working on something that required his creativity (Our thoughts strayed constantly and without boundary "High Hopes").

He was pulling together the documentation for a round of patent applications he is submitting. I asked him if he were going to be submitting to the US or China Patent Office. He said for now, just China, because of a more immediate need to file here. As a tenant of a designated Technology Park and a company that performs research and development, his employer enjoys a lower tax rate than they would in other locations and as only a manufacturing business. To maintain this tax status, they need to prove that they are doing R&D, and patents are evidence of that.

There has been quite a bit in the news in recent years about the shear volume of patent applications in China, especially compared to the much lower number that cross the desks of examiners in the US Patent Office. But for the individual inventors and their employers, patents mean very different things in the US than in China. 

The largest incentive for patenting in the US is to protect an idea from being copied by a competing interest. The motivation is mostly commercial, whether it be licensing to collect fees or keeping the product or idea exclusive. I have a patent, and my employer pursued this application to final approval to be able to offer our motor customers a useful product that they could legally only buy from us. It's no life saving device, but for my employer at the time, it meant a decent revenue stream. From a marketing standpoint, the integrated magnet-commutator also illustrated that we were capable of finding unique solutions to common motor manufacturing problems outside of the usual product mix. I had another application, submitted around the same time, that the company, wisely or unwisely I cannot say, ceased pursuing because it seemed no longer to make commercial sense. And for me, the lady whose name comes first on these patents, my reward was--you guessed it. My name on a patent. 

In China, though, the motivation to patent has less to do with protecting company revenue and more to do with other perks. I already mentioned that Randy's employer has a preferred tax status that they could actually lose unless they prove worthiness by patents.  For some individual inventors, too, there are incentives like otherwise unobtainable hukou or cash bonuses. Randy's reward, though, will probably be more American-style.

I understand what the Chinese government is trying to achieve. It's much less about protecting Chinese Intellectual Property (at this point) and more about trying to create a culture of innovation. By giving these kinds of incentives, the hope is that among all the hundreds of thousands of likely dubious patents filed and awarded in this country some will emerge that will truly be of value. One measure of that would, of course, be how these same patents succeed as filed in other countries with more stringent requirements. A quick search of the USPTO database shows that Huawei, a recognized leader in this regard, has several hundred patents already granted in the US. A more detailed search would pin down an exact number, but using the website's Quick Search feature I came up with 772. Would Huawei be as innovative if there weren't these incentives in place? Would they still be primarily a contract manufacturer without their patent bonuses? 

I'm intrigued about how Randy's applications continue. I understand how the process works in the US, so this is new terrain for us here. As long as these patents are only in China, I can still brag that I'm the only American inventor in the house, right?