China Patents: More, More, More, How Do You Like It?

I did a short post the other day, based on a Wall Street Journal column, briefly discussing the pros and cons and the costs of securing China patents. China Hearsay did an excellent follow-up post on my post and the article, entitled, "Another IP Pet Peeve."

The Wall Street Journal talked a lot about the strategy of defensive filing of patents, which is "essentially the idea of filing IP, not because you expect to use that protection offensively against infringers, but because you want to block a third party from registering the IP in their name and then turning around and initiating an infringement action against you." China Hearsay makes clear he has no problem with this strategy, but he saw an implication in the WSJ article "that defensive filing may sometimes be the only justification for the cost of filing a patent in China" and this "annoyed" him:

Again, I’m not going to start the whole “China’s IP system is getting better and filing a patent is worth it and can be protected . . .” type of argument. Call me, and I’ll be happy to sound forth on that subject for a couple hours, but I’m not writing about it today. No, what really bothers me is this knee-jerk aggregation of the “China market” that encompasses all types of patents, all types of products, all kinds of technologies, all locations, all manufacturing processes - you get the point.

Look, your chances of protecting your patent in China varies significantly according to a number of factors. Given positive factors, the system here can work extremely well for IP owners. Given a poor set of factors, you can be screwed with no practical options. Talking about whether filing a patent in worth it or not begs the question as to what technology we are dealing with, what industry sector, a whole host of issues.

He concludes by concurring with my suggestion (against the advice of the WSJ) to avoid doubling up with patent attorneys. China Hearsay concurs with my advice that it is usually not necessary to have a "US patent counsel in the loop."

I conclude by wholeheartedly concurring with China Hearsay's manifesto on how every potential patent filing warrants its own analysis.