Discussion on the Management and Protection (I) of Intellectual Property Rights in Colleges and Universities

The 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposed to implement the innovation-driven development strategy, emphasizing that scientific and technological innovation is the strategic support for improving social productivity and comprehensive national strength, and must be placed at the core of the overall national development. Recently, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council issued the outline of the National Innovation-driven Development Strategy and issued a circular requiring all localities and departments to conscientiously implement it in the light of reality.
Innovation-led development is a major national development strategy established by our country in the new stage of development, which is based on the overall situation, facing the world, focusing on the key and driving the whole. As the first incubator of scientific and technological innovation, universities and related scientific research institutes are in the absolute vanguard position in the tide of innovation-driven development, and scientific and technological innovation must first consider the management, operation and protection of intellectual property rights. Based on many years of experience in the service of high school and scientific research institutes, the author discusses the problems that should be paid attention to in the management, operation and protection of intellectual property rights in universities and scientific research institutes.

Definition of Intellectual Property Rights in 1. Universities
According to the regulations on the Protection and Administration of intellectual property Rights in Colleges and Universities promulgated and implemented by the Ministry of Education, intellectual property rights in colleges and universities mainly refer to patent rights and trademark rights; technical secrets and trade secrets; copyright and its neighboring rights; school standards and various service marks of colleges and universities; and other rights enjoyed or held by colleges and universities in accordance with the provisions of national laws and regulations or by contracts in accordance with the law.

Problems of Intellectual Property Management and Protection in 2. Universities

(I) college administrators, teachers, students awareness of intellectual property protection is not enough
Colleges and universities are generally concerned about papers and scientific research results, emphasizing the publication of papers and light patent implementation, and the identification of results and light patent applications. Many scientific research achievements are published in the form of papers, which lose their confidentiality as patents or proprietary technologies and cannot be protected by law, resulting in these scientific research achievements being used free of charge by the society and produced and sold; some teachers transfer their job achievements as private scientific research achievements; teachers leave their posts, students take away the technological innovation achievements they participate in when they graduate, and so on, resulting in the loss of intellectual property rights in colleges and universities.
At the same time, due to one-sided cost savings, the price of patent application fees that were originally lower than the cost is reduced, resulting in low quality of patent applications, narrow scope of protection or obtaining patents, but the degree of novelty and creativity is low, and the patent is unstable. It is easy for a third party to lose the patent right through invalidation and other procedures.

(II) the name of the university (including the abbreviation) of the school badge is registered or abused, their own rights and interests are damaged.
The name and emblem of colleges and universities are important symbols representing colleges and universities, but many commercial entities register first or abuse them at will in order to take advantage of the good reputation and wide popularity of colleges and universities; what's more, some training courses pretend to be the name of colleges and universities. Enrollment, deceiving students, running schools illegally, seriously damaging the reputation of colleges and universities.

(III) to the transformation of scientific and technological achievements in the process of control is not enough, the conversion success rate is low
On the one hand, colleges and universities lack a strict confidentiality system, which leads to the leakage of technological achievements or key technologies and data in the process of transformation of scientific and technological achievements, and many patented and non-patented technologies are used free of charge without permission; there is a lack of a set of systematic transformation system of scientific and technological achievements, and the value of university name and reputation is not considered or the price is too low when evaluating intellectual property rights. The signing of technology contracts is not standardized, the content is not perfect, such as the ownership of the results is not clear, there is no agreement on confidentiality and so on.
On the other hand, there is not enough understanding of the importance of the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, lack of experts in the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, and too strict control of costs, resulting in the inability to enjoy good services.

3. University Intellectual Property Management and Protection Service Program
In view of the problems existing in the management and protection of intellectual property rights in colleges and universities, the intellectual property team of the Institute recommends that colleges and universities take the following measures to manage and protect intellectual property rights:
1. Hire a professional team to provide training and daily legal advice on intellectual property related laws
Hire a professional team to conduct legal training on intellectual property related content for colleges and universities from time to time, including interpreting the latest national laws and regulations related to intellectual property, how to distinguish between job scientific and technological achievements and non-job scientific and technological achievements, and what different scientific and technological achievements should be carried out. Legal protection, precautions when signing various technology transfer contracts, and the establishment of intellectual property mock courts, on-site demonstration of the trial process of intellectual property litigation, etc.
Employ a professional team to provide daily legal consultation work for colleges and universities, and answer in detail the questions and consultations about intellectual property rights of teachers and students in colleges and universities, so as to cultivate the awareness of intellectual property protection of college faculty and students, and help them in all aspects of scientific research projects, especially The initial link tightens the string of intellectual property management and protection to achieve a multiplier effect with half the effort.
2. Hire a professional team to assist universities in regular copyright registration and improve copyright-related systems
Regularly register the copyright enjoyed by teachers and students in colleges and universities, so as to standardize the management of colleges and universities, which can not only be used as the basis for teacher assessment and promotion, but also as evidence in the event of copyright disputes; assist colleges and universities to set up a reasonable copyright reward and punishment system, not only to reward teachers and students who publish papers, but also to severely punish plagiarism and plagiarism, so as to purify the academic atmosphere of colleges and universities.
3. Hire a professional team to provide consultation, planning, application, daily trademark management and later rights protection for trademark related matters in colleges and universities.
In order to better maintain the reputation of colleges and universities, to protect the legitimate rights and interests of colleges and universities, colleges and universities should apply for the name of the school and its abbreviation, the school badge and other trademark registration, to prevent others from squatting, and arbitrary abuse. To provide one-stop service for trademark registration to be carried out by colleges and universities, including preliminary consultation, planning, specific trademark registration application, daily trademark management, trademark renewal and subsequent trademark rights protection work.
4. Hire high-level patent agencies to design patent applications according to the requirements of universities, teachers and students, including integration and expansion of invention points, writing claims, specifications and drawings, as well as subsequent patent maintenance and rights protection work.
In order to prevent the loss of intellectual property rights of universities and teachers and students, for the scientific definition of service invention and non-service invention, the legal division of intellectual property rights and obligations between universities and individuals. Colleges and universities should hire high-level patent agencies to conduct worldwide patent searches for the patents they intend to apply for according to the requirements of colleges and universities and their teachers and students, issue search or technical analysis reports, and tailor-design patent applications for them; make revocation or invalidation requests for other people's patents; and help them integrate and expand their inventions through continuous communication, and write claims, specifications and drawings and other applications, as well as follow-up patent rights and other work.
If colleges and universities hire patent agents to write patent applications simply to pursue quantity and pay far lower consideration than the market price, then the quality of patents cannot be guaranteed for colleges and universities, and they can only produce "three no patents" that have no actual effect. It is not really effective to protect valuable patented technology, and the gain is not worth the loss.
5. Colleges and universities should attach importance to the transformation of scientific and technological achievements and strictly control the whole process of the transformation of scientific and technological achievements.
First of all, colleges and universities should formulate a strict confidentiality system. Schools, researchers and partners should sign standardized content and perfect confidentiality agreements (agree on detailed and strict liability for breach of contract), strictly abide by every process of the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, and avoid the disclosure of technical information. Secondly, colleges and universities should take the initiative to build communication platforms with enterprises, strengthen the cooperation between colleges and enterprises, and actively promote the transformation of scientific and technological achievements in colleges and universities. Thirdly, colleges and universities should hire intellectual property experts to attend all meetings on the transformation of scientific and technological achievements and issue legal opinions. Finally, colleges and universities should set up equity incentive system in due course to promote the enthusiasm of scientific research members to transform scientific and technological achievements.
6, colleges and universities should establish and improve the intellectual property management system.
From a legal point of view, assist universities to establish and improve the intellectual property management system, mainly including the establishment of organizations, the examination of technical secrets, copyright registration, trademark registration, patent application and protection, the ownership of intellectual property rights, the incentive of scientific research personnel, the establishment of intellectual property information retrieval system, etc., so that the intellectual property protection work of colleges and universities can be more standardized, professional and systematic.
7, colleges and universities should attach great importance to all kinds of intellectual property litigation, administrative reconsideration cases
The high incidence of administrative and civil infringement cases related to intellectual property rights, in addition to high compensation, also involves the ownership of intellectual property rights. Therefore, colleges and universities should attach great importance to it, actively carry out intellectual property rights protection work, handle all kinds of intellectual property disputes, and bring administrative reconsideration to the decision of administrative organs not to accept it.
8. Engage professional lawyers to draft, review and revise all kinds of intellectual property legal documents
Colleges and universities should hire professional lawyers to draft, review and modify all kinds of contracts involving the transfer or license of intellectual property rights, and pay attention to their subsequent signing and performance.
Postscript: The previous article is the general plan and suggestions for intellectual property protection in universities and scientific research institutes. The author will successively launch special articles on the research and development, transformation, management, operation and protection of scientific and technological achievements. Please pay attention.