The three departments jointly carried out special rectification actions for the intellectual property agency industry——

At present, our country is accelerating from a big intellectual property country to an intellectual property power, and high-quality development has become the core theme of intellectual property cause. The intellectual property agency industry is an important part of the intellectual property service industry, and high-quality agency services are an important guarantee for the realization of high-quality creation, high-efficiency application and high-standard protection of intellectual property rights.

In recent years, the intellectual property agency industry has continued to develop and its service level has been continuously improved, making important contributions to the construction of an intellectual property power. However, at the same time, driven by interests, some intellectual property agency industry violations of laws and regulations have seriously damaged the legitimate rights and interests of innovation subjects, disrupted the normal market order, and hindered the healthy development of intellectual property rights. In this regard, since November this year, the State Intellectual Property Office, together with the Ministry of Public Security and the State Administration for Market Regulation, has deployed a three-month special rectification action for the intellectual property agency industry to create a good business environment with standardized, orderly and fair competition.

 Accurately rectify the exposed problems of the industry

"The essence of intellectual property rights is the institutional guarantee of innovation achievements. In the stage of high-quality development of intellectual property rights, carrying out special rectification actions for the intellectual property agency industry is of great practical significance for optimizing the business environment and accelerating the construction of an intellectual property power. Ma Yide, dean and professor of the School of Intellectual Property of the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that the State Intellectual Property Office, the Ministry of Public Security, and the State Administration for Market Regulation jointly carried out a special rectification action, releasing a strong signal of regulatory coordination and heavy governance. The linkage of the three departments means that the rectification is no longer limited to the internal norms of the industry, but through the systematic coordination of administrative supervision, law enforcement case handling and market order governance, a full-chain supervision model from source governance to key crackdowns is formed. It is expected that this move can effectively curb the chaos in the industry, promote the return of agencies to the origin of professionalism and service, and then guide the industry as a whole towards a standardized and professional high-quality development track.

This special rectification action adheres to the principles of problem-oriented, treating both symptoms and root causes, classified policies, and seeking practical results, and deploys 14 tasks from three aspects: severely cracking down on violations of laws and regulations, focusing on rectifying irregular practices, and strengthening source governance. By strictly investigating and punishing illegal agencies and practitioners, rectifying and cleaning up irregular practice behaviors, and publicly exposing typical illegal cases, a deterrent effect has been quickly formed; At the same time, highlight the coordinated efforts of the applicant, examination and agency sides to crack down on improper patent trading, and curb patent applications that are not based on real invention activities and patent sales that are not for the purpose of industrialization from the source.

In terms of severely cracking down on violations of laws and regulations, the special rectification action targets prominent illegal acts such as falsifying patent applicant information, fabricating patent applications, acting as an agent for a large number of abnormal patent applications, falsifying, acting as an agent for malicious trademark applications, acting as an agent for unqualified patent agents, and soliciting agency business by improper means.

For the centralized rectification of irregular practice behavior, the special rectification action focuses on rectifying the illegal business solicitation of leasing and lending agency qualifications and Internet platforms, accelerating the cleanup of institutions that have obtained agency qualifications by fraudulent means and no longer meet the conditions for practice licenses, and promote the realization of "slimming down" in the industry.

The special rectification action requires strengthening source governance, guiding innovation entities to standardize patent application behavior, guiding and standardizing the relevant behavior of intellectual property trading and operation platforms, correctly distinguishing and encouraging legitimate patent transformation and application, and effectively curbing buying and selling behaviors for improper purposes. At the same time, we should break the patent policy orientation of "quantity only" and promote the optimization of various assessment and evaluation and funding and incentive policies related to patents.

"This action not only emphasizes the severe crackdown on violations of laws and regulations on the agency side, but also pays more attention to the coordinated efforts from the application side and the review side to promote the optimization of evaluation indicators, aiming to curb abnormal application behavior from the source. As an industry self-regulatory organization, we believe that this action provides a crucial opportunity to purify the market environment and promote the high-quality development of the industry. Zhao Jianjun, secretary-general of the All-China Patent Agents Association, said that as a national industry organization under the supervision of the State Intellectual Property Office, the association will closely cooperate with administrative supervision in this rectification action, and play a role as a bridge and industry self-discipline. Continue to deepen the construction of industry style, improve industry supervision mechanisms, increase industry self-discipline and punishment and case exposure, and create a good atmosphere for all parties to jointly resist illegal agency acts.

Vigorously promote the healthy development of the industry

Many innovative enterprises have a deep understanding of intellectual property agency work from the "hardships they have suffered". "When we initially selected a patent agency, we also took cost as the primary consideration and chose the service provider with the lowest quotation. However, such institutions are often single-oriented towards authorization, resulting in excessive narrowing of the scope of patent claim protection, making enterprises fall into the dilemma of passive rights protection when facing infringement disputes after the listing of their core products. He Zhenrui, president of the research institute of Shanxi Jinbo Biopharmaceutical Co., Ltd., told reporters that after learning this "lesson", the company turned to professional quality as the core screening of cooperative agencies, although some patent agency service fees were as high as tens of thousands of yuan, but they effectively protected the core technology of the enterprise.

"Professional agencies can accurately tap the core of technological innovation and transform technological breakthroughs into high-value patents through high-quality patent writing. The high-quality development of the agency industry is a key link connecting enterprise innovation from 'technological breakthrough' to 'market value', which can not only protect the legitimacy of innovative achievements, but also help realize its commercial value, and ultimately promote enterprises to form a virtuous circle of 'R&D-protection-revenue-re-R&D'. He Zhenrui said.

Suzhou Chuangyuan Patent and Trademark Office Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Suzhou Chuangyuan) has provided intellectual property agency services for GoodChild Children's Products Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as GoodChild Company) for many years, because of its excellent patent quality, GoodBaby Company has won many patent rights protection lawsuits around the world.

"Only patents that can withstand the test of intellectual property rights protection litigation can be called high-value patents and make innovative achievements competitive in the market. Intellectual property representation is closely related to patent quality. Sun Fangwei, chairman of Suzhou Chuangyuan, emphasized the importance of high-quality intellectual property agency work. He said that a good market environment is the prerequisite for improving the quality of intellectual property agency, and he looks forward to breaking the policy orientation of "quantity only", returning patent applications to their use value, and cultivating a broader and high-quality soil for the healthy and orderly development of the intellectual property agency industry.

"Intellectual property agency is a highly professional job, and if the business entity does not have an accurate understanding of the value of intellectual property rights, it is easy to fall into the misunderstanding of choosing an agent with price as the main consideration. In order to reduce illegal intellectual property agents from the root, it is necessary to let market players have an accurate and proper understanding of intellectual property rights and the value of intellectual property agencies. This special rectification is deployed to strengthen source governance, requiring the abolition of the patent policy orientation of 'quantity only', which will play a role in promoting the establishment of correct agency values for business entities. Deng Yiyou, a researcher at the Intellectual Property Development Research Center of the State Intellectual Property Office, said.

In recent years, a number of relevant departments and units have been committed to promoting the high quality and high price of the intellectual property agency industry from the source, and the State Intellectual Property Office and the Ministry of Finance have issued the government procurement demand standards for patent and trademark agency services, guiding and encouraging large state-owned enterprises, private universities, listed companies, innovative enterprises, etc. in the bidding for agency service procurement, not only to improve the evaluation weight of service content and quality standards, but also to reduce the evaluation weight of price factors, so as to avoid "regardless of service type, content and quality, only the low-priced one gets". It is also necessary to determine the level of the winning bid price based on the actual needs such as the type and content of procurement agency services to achieve "quality and price matching". At the same time, the State Intellectual Property Office issued a model text and signing guidelines for patent and trademark agency entrustment contracts to standardize and guide agency behavior, ensure the equality of rights and obligations between the entrusting parties, promote the realization of high-quality and high-price agency services, and guide the agency industry to transform from "price fighting" to "quality". The All-China Patent Agents Association has carried out the selection of the list of precise service guarantees for agencies, and more than 2,200 institutions have entered the list, so that the high-level inventions and creations of high-quality innovative subjects can receive high-level and precise services from high-quality agencies.

At present, the special rectification action is progressing in an orderly manner, and it is expected that the rectification work will achieve tangible results, promote the development and improvement of the agency industry in the standard, and provide strong support for the high-quality development of intellectual property rights.