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Amendments to Patent Law to Encourage Individual Creativity: Legislators
Does a patent belong to an individual or the unit he works for when he creates an invention using his unit's funding and equipment?
This became a hotly debated issue in this morning's deliberation of the draft amendments to the Patent Law among the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), China's top law-making body.
Luo Yifeng, one of the committee members, suggested that the law protect the patent rights of the unit in such circumstances, citing the case of some would-be-retirees. They usually take advantage of the research conditions provided by their units to develop their own research projects, he said, and upon the retirement register the results of the projects as their own patents.
"This infringes on the patent rights of the unit," he pointed out.
Liu Yizhong, another legislator, thought otherwise. "It's true that they take advantage of the equipment of the unit, but the creative idea and design belong to the individual rather than the unit. Therefore, the individual should claim the major part in the patent," he argued.
Xie Songkai, also a member of the law-making body, sat on the fence. He felt that both parties play some role in the invention, and simply stipulating that the patent belongs to the unit doesn't encourage creativity.
Thus, "the researcher and the unit should sign an agreement on the patent issue as well as on the percentage of the distribution of the profits beforehand," he said.
NPC Vice Chairman Zhou Guangzhao held that the international practice in this regard should be relied upon to solve the problem. He noted that some researchers and units steal the patents of some State-funded research projects.
"The patents of such projects should belong to the State, and of course, the researcher and the unit should gain their due profits from the project," he said.
Other lawmakers put forward various proposals for the draft amendments.
Qin Chijiang, an NPC deputy, suggested that the law stipulate that the government provide some economic and legal aid to those important patent projects that are especially in need of funding.
NPC Standing Committee member Wang Mingshi said that strict punishment was designed for any patent administration departments that actively promote patented products by abusing their power.
Nie Li, Wang Xuan and Song Qingwei, members of NPC Standing Committee, urged that stricter measures, especially administrative measures, be in place to fight the rampant infringement of patent rights.
They proposed that patent administration offices be established in the governments below the provincial level when necessary.
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