EETimes.com - Analysis: Winning the patent game in Asia:


We've heard so much about it over the last several years that intellectual property (IP) issues hardly get us excited. Yes, we all know about both sides of the story — the complaints by both patent holders mostly outside Asia and those in Asia new to the patent regime.
A recent report by the U.S.-based Manufacturing Policy Project concludes that companies from countries with weak IP protection are copying technologies from unprotected patent applications that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and Japan's Patent Office (JPO) post on the Internet. The JPO found out that its applications are being examined about 17,000 times daily from China and 50,000 times daily from South Korea.

The report claims that Chinese pirates and counterfeiters are now defending themselves with a new technique called “A Great Wall of Patents.” This process involves filing for patents in China for the products copied. The applications are claimed to use modified drawings and descriptions taken from the patent office Internet sites in the United States, Europe and Japan.

The report finds three patent crises for the United States: piracy costs U.S. IP owners about $50 billion a year; patent pendency rates are close to 30 months, which is impeding introduction of newer and better technologies; and the U.S. 18-month rule allows copying of proprietary U.S. technology.

The industry has often said that once IP violators become IP owners, both the respect for IP and its protection will increase. The good news for everyone involved is that IP ownership is indeed gaining ground in Asia, according to statistics from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The WIPO, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, is a specialized agency of the United Nations. It administers the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), which involves 128 countries, and 22 other international treaties dealing with IP protection.