企业特殊行业经营资质信息公示1.The ‘Value’ Trap
过分夸大专利的价值
The value of patents can be overstated. Remember, patent systems are established to help disseminate inventions and innovations so that oth-ers can learn and continue inventing and innovating; the dissemination process is achieved by the patent application, where the inventor con-veniently summarizes the major concepts and teaches the reader how to make the invention. The loss of secrecy because of the disclosure must be weighed against the limited monopoly that may be granted to the patent applicant. In some cases, it is better to keep an invention secret rather than attempt to obtain a patent.
一些申请人的观念中，专利的价值可能被夸大了。专利制度的建立是为了帮助传播发明和创新，以便其他人能够学习并继续搞创新。技术的传播是通过公开专利申请来实现的，在这个过程中，发明者能够对技术方案进行总结，并教会读者如何进行发明。发明者必须权衡披露造成的保密损失与可能授予专利申请人的有限的垄断利益。在一些情况下，*对技术方案进行保密，而不是试图申请专利。
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2.The ‘Protection’ Trap
错把专利权当成实施权
A basic tenet of patent law is that a patent does not give the patent owner the right to practice his invention, but only gives him the right to exclude others. Therefore, there are times when two different patent holders, holding similar patents, cannot practice their inventions, and must negotiate cross-licenses. By ‘protecting’ an invention through patents, one is assuming that these inventions are valuable and there is a business reason not to want anyone else practicing these inventions. Protecting an invention, however, does not mean guaranteeing the inventor’s right to practice the invention.
专利法的一个基本原则是，专利并不赋予专利权人实施其发明的权利，而只是赋予专利权人排除他人实施专利的权利。因此，如果两个不同的专利持有者，拥有相似的专利，并不意味着他们可以实施他们自己的发明创造。他们必须协商交叉许可。专利法通过授予专利权来“保护”一项发明，就是假设这些发明创造是有价值的，并且有商业理由不希望其他人实施这些发明创造。但是，保护一项发明并不意味着保证发明者拥有实施该发明的权利。
The idea that every invention must be protected must be weighed against the cost of filing many applications. The bottom line should always be that those applications describing inventions that increase the competitive position of a business should be filed, while applications on less attractive inventions should not. In either case there will be mistakes. Things that should have been patented will not be, and money will be spent on lousy inventions. However, if the business has a patent strategy, the number of these mistakes should be reduced.
每项发明创造都面临获得周延保护与大量专利申请成本的权衡。能够提高企业竞争地位的发明的申请自然应当提交专利申请，而那些不那么具有吸引力的发明的申请则不应当提交。无论哪种情况，都难免会犯错。那些本应该被申请专利的东西却没有被申请，或者大量的钱被花在糟糕的发明上。企业如果能实施好的专利战略，可以减少这些错误。
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3.The ‘Patent at All Costs’ Trap
不惜一切代价申请专利
Just because a business obtains a patent does not make its competitive position better. If the claims of a patent application are severely restricted during prosecution, the value of the application may be reduced to such an extent that it is no longer worth the issuance and maintenance cost (see Figure 2.6). Holding onto a worthless patent is the same as holding onto a worthless business. Both will suck funds from the items that have value and reduce the overall profitability of the business.
仅仅因为获得了一项专利，并不一定能使企业的竞争地位提升多少。如果专利申请的权利要求，诉讼中被严格限制其保护范围，专利申请的价值可能会降低到不再值得申请和维护。持有一项毫无价值的专利就等于做赔本生意。两者都会从有价值的项目中抽走资金，降低企业的整体盈利能力。
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4.The ‘Idea’ Misconception
误以为专利可以保护一种想法
Patents are essentially legally granted monopolies on an embod-iment of an idea in tangible form. Ideas are the lifeblood of the patent system, because they generate inventions, but it is the invention, the tangible form, which must be patented; an idea cannot be patented. Therefore, patents can grant the holder the right to a legal monopoly of the inventions claimed. Patents cannot give anyone a monopoly over the basic idea contained in the patent.
专利权是以具体的形式体现一种想法，然后获得法律上授予的排他权。这种想法是专利系统的生命线，因为它们产生了发明创造，但只有具体的技术方案才能获得专利;仅仅只是一个想法，是不能获得专利的。专利权可以赋予权利人对权利要求划定的技术方案拥有合法垄断权。但是，专利一般不能让任何人垄断专利中包含的基本想法。
来源：老彭侃知产作者：彭文波