JP7130715B2 - A management method, a management device, and a program executed by the management device for managing the payment of expenses necessary to maintain the shared industrial property rights - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a management method, a management device, and a program executed by the management device for managing payment of expenses necessary for maintaining shared industrial property rights.

Industrial property rights such as patents, utility models, designs, and trademarks are maintained by paying patent fees and registration fees at specified intervals. For example, a patent right in Japan is maintained by paying a prescribed fee every year from the date of registration of establishment of the patent right. For U.S. patent rights, the first time between 3 and 3.5 years after the date of registration of the establishment of the patent right, the second time between 7 and 7.5 years after the registration date, and 11 and 11.5 years after By making a third payment during
Patent rights are maintained.

In this way, due dates for payment of expenses vary depending on the type of industrial property rights and countries. In addition, due to changes in laws and other factors, the amount of fees and due dates for payment may change. For this reason, it is cumbersome for the right holder to directly manage the payment of expenses, so the right holder of the industrial property right should entrust the management of the payment of expenses to a specialized company (hereafter referred to as a pension management company). There is The pension management company manages the payment of expenses required to maintain the industrial property rights requested by the industrial property right holders (hereafter referred to as customers). The pension management company notifies the customer of the deadline for payment of the expenses, and pays or does not pay the expenses according to the response from the customer as to whether or not the payment is required (Patent Document 1, etc.).

JP-A-2004-46467

For patents owned jointly by two or more persons (two companies), when judging the necessity of payment of patent fees, etc., each co-owner directly informs the pension management company of their intentions. It is common to In this case, it is difficult for the co-owners to directly grasp each other's intentions, and it is difficult to refer to the intentions of the other co-owners when deciding on their own intentions, which is inconvenient.

Therefore, the present invention is implemented by a management method, a management device, and a management device that enable co-owners to confirm their intentions with each other in a method of managing payment of expenses necessary for maintaining industrial property rights related to co-ownership. Offer a program.

According to the invention,
A management method for managing payment of expenses necessary to maintain industrial property rights requested by a customer,
a bibliographic database containing bibliographic information necessary for calculating the due date for payment of the expenses necessary for maintaining the industrial property rights requested by the customer;
A management device having a processing device that can access the bibliographic database,
a due date obtaining step of obtaining a due date for payment of the fee based on the bibliographic database;
a deadline date notification step of notifying the customer of the payment deadline date and inquiring whether or not the payment of the costs is necessary for the industrial property right that is a predetermined period before the payment deadline date;
a response receiving step of receiving a response from each of the customers as to whether or not the payment of the costs is necessary;
A management method is provided for executing a reply notification step of notifying each said reply to said all customers concerning said jointly owned industrial property right of said jointly owned industrial property right.

Moreover, according to the present invention,
A management device for managing the payment of expenses necessary to maintain industrial property rights requested by a customer,
a bibliographic database containing bibliographic information necessary for calculating the due date for payment of the expenses necessary for maintaining the industrial property rights requested by the customer;
a processing device capable of accessing the bibliographic database;
The processing device is
a due date obtaining step of obtaining a due date for payment of the fee based on the bibliographic database;
a deadline date notification step of notifying the customer of the payment deadline date and inquiring whether or not the payment of the costs is necessary for the industrial property right that is a predetermined period before the payment deadline date;
a response receiving step of receiving a response from each of the customers as to whether or not the payment of the costs is necessary;
A management device is provided for executing a response notification step of notifying each of the responses for the shared industrial property rights to all the customers regarding the shared industrial property rights.

Furthermore, according to the present invention,
A program executable on a management device for managing payment of expenses necessary to maintain industrial property rights requested by a customer,
The management device
a bibliographic database containing bibliographic information necessary for calculating the due date for payment of the expenses necessary for maintaining the industrial property rights requested by the customer;
Having a processing device capable of accessing the bibliographic database,
When the program is executed, the processing device acquires a deadline date for payment of the fee based on the bibliographic database;
a deadline date notification step of notifying the customer of the payment deadline date and inquiring whether or not the payment of the cost is necessary for the industrial property right that is a predetermined period before the payment deadline date;
a response receiving step of receiving a response from each of the customers as to whether or not the payment of the costs is necessary;
A program is provided for executing an answer notification step of notifying all said customers regarding said shared industrial property rights of said respective said answers to said shared industrial property rights.

According to the present invention, in a method for managing payment of expenses necessary for maintaining industrial property rights related to joint ownership, a management method, a management device, and a management device that enable co-owners to confirm their intentions with each other are performed. A program is provided.

It is a block diagram which shows the management apparatus which concerns on 1st embodiment of this invention. 4 is a flow chart of a management method according to the first embodiment of the present invention; 4 is a flow chart of a management method according to the first embodiment of the present invention; It is an example of the display screen which a processing apparatus displays on a customer's terminal. It is an example of the display screen which a processing apparatus displays on a customer's terminal. It is an example of the display screen which a processing apparatus displays on a customer's terminal. It is an example of the display screen which a processing apparatus displays on a customer's terminal. It is an example of the display screen which a processing apparatus displays on a customer's terminal. 4 is a flow chart of a management method according to a second embodiment of the present invention; 8 is a flow chart of a management method according to a third embodiment of the present invention;

Examples of embodiments according to the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

<First embodiment>
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a management device 1 according to the first embodiment of the invention. The management device 1 is a device for managing payment of expenses necessary for maintaining industrial property rights requested by customers. The management device 1 is owned by a pension management company. As shown in FIG. 1, the management device 1 is connected to terminals 6 of a plurality of customers via the Internet.

The management device 1 includes a bibliographic database 2 , a law database 3 , a customer database 4 and a processing device 5 . The processing device 5 includes a bibliographic database 2, a law database 3,
It is connected to a customer database 4 so that it can be accessed.

The bibliographic database 2 stores bibliographic items necessary for calculating the deadline for payment of expenses necessary for maintaining the industrial property rights requested by the customer. For example, the bibliographic database 2 stores country, type of right, application number, registration number, application date, registration date, update date, right holder name, requester name, number of claims, etc. for each requested industrial property right. Remember. When an industrial property right is shared by multiple people, the bibliographic database 2 also stores the ownership ratio of each right holder. The bibliographic items of the requested industrial property right are added to the bibliographic database 2 each time a new request is received from the customer.

The law database 3 stores laws for calculating deadlines for payment of expenses necessary for maintaining industrial property rights. For example, the law database 3 stores, for each country and each type of right, the start date, calculation information for the fiscal year, calculation information for the amount of expenses, and the like.
For example, in the law database 3, for patent rights in Japan, the start date is the date of registration of the establishment of the patent right, and the deadline for payment of expenses is reached every year from the start date
Regarding applications for which a request for examination was filed on or after April 1, 2004,
From the first year to the third year, 2,100 yen per year plus 200 yen per claim;
From the 4th year to the 6th year, 6,400 yen per year plus 500 yen per claim;
From the 7th to the 9th year, 19,300 yen per year plus 1,500 yen per claim;
From the 10th year to the 25th year, I remember that the annual amount was 55,400 yen plus 4,300 yen per claim.

The customer database 4 stores customer names, delivery destinations, contacts, names of persons in charge, and the like. In this embodiment, the customer database 4 stores IP addresses of customer terminals.

The processing device 5 is connected to the bibliographic database 2, the law database 3, and the customer database 4 so as to be accessible. The processing device 5 reads a program stored in a storage device such as a hard disk, RAM (Random Access Memory), ROM (Read Only Memory), or the like, and executes the management method described below.

The management device 1 uses a bibliographic database 2, a law database 3, and a customer database 4 to manage the payment of expenses required to maintain the requested industrial property rights. 2 and 3 are flowcharts of the management method that the management device 1 causes the processing device 5 to execute in this embodiment. 4 to 8 are examples of display screens displayed on the customer's terminal 6 by the processing device 5. FIG. In this embodiment, the management device 1 causes the web browser displayed on the customer's terminal 6 to display the screens shown in FIGS. 4 to 8 and the like.

As shown in FIG. 2, first, as step 01, the processing device 5 calculates the due date of payment based on the bibliographic database 2 and the law database 3 (deadline acquisition step). For example, the processing device 5 executes the expiry date obtaining step every month. The processing device 5 executes the due date obtaining process for all industrial property rights requested by the pension management company, and obtains all industrial property rights whose payment due dates are before a predetermined period (for example, six months before) from the present. Extract property rights. note that,
Instead of such processing, once a month, industrial property rights whose payment due date is within a predetermined period from the present (Industrial property rights to which the data belongs) may be extracted.

Next, in step 02, the processing device 5 notifies the customer of the payment due date for the industrial property rights whose payment due date is a predetermined period (for example, the payment due date is six months from now), and makes the payment. (deadline notification step). For example, the processing device 5 refers to the customer's contact information (the IP address of each customer in this example) from the customer database 4, notifies each customer of the payment due date, and inquires whether payment is required.

4 to 8 show examples of display screens displayed on the customer's terminal 6 by the management device 1. FIG.
4(a), 5(a), 6(a), 7(a), and 8(a) are display screens for customer A. FIG.
(b) of FIG. 4, (b) of FIG. 5, (b) of FIG. 6, (b) of FIG. 7, and (b) of FIG.
(c) of FIG. 4, (c) of FIG. 5, (c) of FIG. 6, (c) of FIG. 7, and (c) of FIG.
(d) of FIG. 4 is a display screen of a sub-screen for customer A. FIG. (d) of FIG. 5 is a display screen of a sub-screen for customer B. FIG. (d) of FIG. 6 is a display screen of a sub-screen for customer C. FIG. (d) of FIG. 8 is a display screen of a sub-screen for customer B. FIG.

As shown in (a) to (c) of FIG. 4, the processing device 5 selects, for each customer, an industrial property right owned by the customer whose due date for payment is six months from now. Property rights are displayed on the terminal 6 of the customer. In this embodiment, the screens shown in FIGS. 4A to 4C are displayed on the web browsers displayed on the terminals 6 of customers A to C. FIG.

As shown in the figure, the items to be displayed are the customer reference number (your company number), the pension management company reference number (our company number), the country, the type of right, the registration number, the response deadline, the final deadline, the statutory deadline, and the pension amount. , the amount to be borne, whether or not it is shared, the partner of the co-applicant (co-applicant 1, co-applicant 2), answer whether payment is required or not, date and time of answer, match/disagreement of answer, answer of shared party, etc. be done.

A statutory deadline is a deadline for payment of fees to the patent office set by law. The reply deadline is a deadline that the pension management company wishes to reply to the customer, which is set earlier than the legal deadline in order to prompt the customer to reply. The final deadline is a deadline set before the statutory deadline and after the response deadline in order for the pension management company to process the pension payments without fail. In the examples of (a) to (c) of FIG. 4, the reply deadline is set one month before the legal deadline, and the final deadline is set ten days before the legal deadline.

The processing device 5 causes the terminal 6 of the customer A to display only the industrial property rights owned solely by the customer A and the industrial property rights co-owned by the customer A, and displays the industrial property rights not owned by the customer A. is not displayed on customer A's terminal 6. For example, a pension management company sets up an account and password for each customer so that unauthorized third parties cannot access the customer's industrial property information.

As shown in (a) to (c) of FIG. 4, in the present embodiment, our company number 004 is the industrial property rights shared by customers A, B, and C. In addition, the bibliographic database 2 stores that customer A has a share of 3/6, customer B has a share of 2/6, and customer C has a share of 1/6 with respect to our company number 004. For this reason, the processing device 5 bears 15,000 yen out of 30,000 yen for customer A, 10,000 yen out of 30,000 yen for customer B, and 10,000 yen out of 30,000 yen for customer C. It is indicated that 50,000 yen out of 30,000 yen will be borne by

Next, as step 03, the processing device 5 receives responses from the customers as to whether or not payment is required (response receiving step). From each customer through the Internet, the processing device 5
For each industrial property right, we will receive a response as to whether or not payment of fees is required. As shown in (d) of FIG. 4, for example, customer A can send a reply to the pension management company by selecting and pressing a "payment required" button or a "no payment required" button. In FIG. 4D, only the screen for customer A is displayed, but similar screens are displayed on the terminals of customers B and C as well. The screen of FIG. 4(d) can be a sub-screen displayed when the user (the person in charge of customer A) selects the industrial property rights of your company number P45678 on the screen of FIG. 4(a), for example.

As shown in (a) of FIG. 4, as of May 9, 2016, the management device 1 has received a response from customer A regarding our company numbers 001 to 006, which are owned solely by customer A. The management device 1 has received a response from customer A that no payment is required for our company number 004, which is shared by customers A, B, and C, but has not received a response from customers B and C.

Next, in step 04, the processing device 5 determines whether the answered industrial property right is shared. In this embodiment, our company numbers 001 to 003, 005, 006 answered by customer A are not shared (step 04: No). Also, our company number 004 answered by customer A is shared (step 04: Yes).

If step 04 is No (our company numbers 001 to 003), the processor 5 determines whether the response from customer A requires payment or does not require payment (step 06).
If the response from customer A is that payment is required (our company number 001, 0003), processing device 5 executes payment processing (step 07). For example, the pension management company pays the necessary fees to the Patent Office, and when the payment is completed, the processing device 5 notifies the customer A of the completion of payment.
If the response from customer A is that no payment is required (our company number 002), the processor 5 executes non-payment processing (step 08). For example, the processing device 5 puts a payment-unnecessary flag on an industrial property right determined to be payment-unnecessary from the bibliographic database 2, and excludes that industrial property right from the object of management.

If step 04 is Yes (our company number 004), the processing device 5 notifies all customers regarding the shared industrial property of the response from each customer regarding the industrial property right (step 05 (response notification step) ). The processing device 5 notifies the customers A, B, and C who share the company number 004 that the customer A has answered that no payment is required for the company number 004 . As shown in (a) to (c) of FIG. 4, the processing device 5 displays the "shared destination response" column from the customer A on the screen of the terminal 6 of each of the customers A, B, and C. Display the answer of "No need".

In this way, the management device 1 according to this embodiment executes the reply notification process. For this reason, the customers B and C can know the intention of the other sharer A prior to their own answer, so they can refer to the intention of the other sharer A when considering their own answer. be able to. Also, since the customer A can show his/her own intentions to the other co-owners B and C, the intentions of the co-owners B and C can be influenced. Furthermore, since the pension management company can indicate the intention of the customer A to the customers B and C, it is possible to encourage the customers B and C to reply, making it easier to collect the responses within the reply deadline.

<Details of response notification processing>
The management device 1 according to this embodiment can further continue the processing shown in FIG. FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing processing after step 04 in FIG. 2 is Yes.
The reply notification process (step 05) in FIG. 2 corresponds to a series of processes from step 10 to step 15 in FIG.

As shown in Fig. 3, in the case of a shared industrial property right (our company number 004), as of May 9, 2016, the processing device 5 first received a response of "no payment required" from customer A. Assume that it has been received (step 10). Then, as shown in FIG. 4, the processing device 5 notifies the customers A, B, and C of the response of the customer A (step 11), and notifies that the customers B and C have not yet responded.
As shown in (a) of FIG. 4, for our company number 004, "Not required" is displayed for customer A in the "Response" column.
As shown in (b) of FIG. 4, for our company number 004, "not required" is displayed in A in the column of "response to shared destination" for customer B.
As shown in (c) of FIG. 4, for our company number 004, for customer C, "not required" is displayed in A in the column of "response to shared destination".

Then, on May 10, 2016, it is assumed that the processing device 5 receives a response of "payment required" from the customer B regarding our company number 004 (step 12). Then, as shown in FIG. 5, the processing device 5 notifies the customers A, B, and C of the customer A's response and the customer B's response (step 13).
Customer C notifies that there is no reply.
As shown in (a) of FIG. 5, for our company number 004, "Unnecessary" is displayed in the "Answer" column for Customer A, and "Required" is displayed in B in the "Shared party's response" column. .
As shown in (b) of FIG. 5, for our company number 004, "required" is displayed in the "response" column for customer B, and "unnecessary" is displayed in A in the "response to shared destination" column. .
As shown in (c) of FIG. 5, for our company number 004, for customer C, "Not required" is displayed in A of the "Reply to shared party" column, and "Not required" is displayed in B of the "Response to shared party" column. ” is displayed.

Further, on May 11, 2016, it is assumed that the processing device 5 receives a response of "no payment required" from the customer C regarding our company number 004 (step 14). Then, as shown in FIG. 6, the processing device 5 notifies the customers A, B, and C of the response from the customer A, the response from the customer B, and the response from the customer C (step 15).
As shown in (a) of Fig. 6, for our company number 004, "Not required" is displayed in the "Answer" column for Customer A, and "Required" is displayed in B in the "Reply to shared party" column. , "Unnecessary" is displayed in C of the column of "Response to shared destination".
As shown in Fig. 6 (b), for our company number 004, "required" is displayed in the "response" column for customer B, and "unnecessary" is displayed in A in the "shared party response" column. , "Unnecessary" is displayed in C of the column of "Response to shared destination".
As shown in (c) of Fig. 6, for our company number 004, "Unnecessary" is displayed in the "Response" column for Customer C, and "Unnecessary" is displayed in A in the "Shared party response" column. , "Required" is displayed in B in the column of "Response to shared party".

Thus, in the present embodiment, the processing device 5 notifies all customers of the received responses in the response notification step (step 05) each time it receives responses from customers. With such processing, every time a customer answers, the answer can be notified to all the sharers, so the customer can know the answer every time there is another sharer's answer, and can decide whether to pay the cost. easier to do. Pension managers can also expect faster responses from all customers.

In addition, in the present embodiment, in the reply notification step (step 05), every time a reply is received from a customer, the processing device 5 informs all co-owners that the reply has not been received from the customer who has not received the reply. Notice. Customers who have not responded will know that they have not yet responded, and pension managers can expect faster responses from all customers.

In addition, as shown in FIGS. 4 to 6, in the reply notification step, each reply from the customer is notified together with the reply date and time (for example, the date and time of receipt in the management device 1 or the date and time of transmission in the customer terminal 6). With such a display, the customer who has already answered can grasp what kind of answer was given at what time in the past, and can refer to it when reexamining the answer.

<Reinquiry processing>
Returning to FIG. 3, upon receiving responses from all customers of the shared industrial property rights, the processing device 5 determines whether or not all the customer responses match (step 16).
Regarding our company number 004, as of May 11, 2016, the responses from customers A, B, and C do not match (step 16: No). Therefore, the processing device 5 determines whether or not the current time is before the final reply deadline (step 17).

If the current time is after the final response deadline in step 17 (step 17: No),
The processing device 5 executes final processing as step 22 . The final processing can be, for example, a processing in which the processing contents are decided in advance by a contract between the customers A to C and the pension management company. For example, if at least one person answers "yes", payment processing is performed, or if at least one person answers "no", non-payment processing is performed, or
Processing such as following the majority opinion is determined in advance, and if the answers do not match by the deadline for the final reply, the management device executes the final processing.

Thus, in this embodiment, the processing device 5 executes the reply notification process until the final reply deadline that is a predetermined period before the pension payment deadline date, and after the final reply deadline, if the answers do not match, Execute the specified final processing. As a result, the pension management company can proceed with the process even if the customer's answers do not match by the final answer deadline.

If the current time is before the deadline for the final reply (step 17: Yes), the processing device 5 notifies the customers A, B, and C of the fact that the replies do not match and the deadline for payment in step 18, and whether or not payment is required. is re-inquired (re-inquiry step). The processing device 5 repeats the reply notification process until the replies from all the customers who share the industrial property right match.

FIG. 7 shows a screen displayed on the terminal 6 of each of the customers A to C by the processing device 5 at the time of reinquiry. In the example shown in FIG. 7, the processing device 5 extracts only the items for which the answers do not match and displays them on the customer's terminal 6 . This screen may be displayed simultaneously with the screens shown in FIGS. 4 to 6, or may be displayed separately. Alternatively, as a re-inquiry step,
The processing device 5 may highlight our company number 004 for which the answers do not match on the screen shown in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 7, at the time of reinquiry, the response history of each of the customers A to C is also displayed together with the response date and time (the date and time of receipt in the management device 1 or the date and time of transmission in the customer terminal 6). By displaying the response history, it is possible to easily look back on the past responses of each customer. In addition, since the answers of customers A to C can be seen at once, it is possible to easily grasp whether the majority opinion requires payment or does not require payment.

In this embodiment, as of May 12, 2016, it is assumed that the management device 1 has received a response from the customer B that no payment is required for our company number 004 . As a result, returning to FIG. 3, customers A to C agree that no payment is required for our company number 004 (step 16: Yes).

As shown in (a) to (c) of FIG. 8, the processing device 5 notifies the customers A, B, and C that the responses agree without payment (match notification step). Display "Match" in the "Match/Non-Match" column of each customer's display screen. In addition, as shown in (d) of FIG. 8, all customers A, You may notify B and C.

The processing device 5 determines whether or not the matching answer is payment required (step 21). If the matching answer is "payment required" (step 21: Yes), the previously explained payment processing (step 07) is executed. Non-payment processing (step 08) is executed. In this embodiment, the processing device 5 executes non-payment processing for our company number 004 (step 08).

As described above, according to this embodiment, within the final response time limit, the fact that the answers do not match is displayed until the answers match, and the customer's answer is requested again, and the process is performed after the answers match. . Therefore, the process can proceed according to the contents agreed upon by the co-owners.

It should be noted that the customer response form may be provided with a check box for "final response" indicating that "the response will not be changed regardless of the intentions of other companies." When the processing device 5 receives an answer with a check mark in the check box of the final answer, it treats the answer from the customer as unchanged, and processes whether the answers match or not. may be configured to continue. If the answers do not match, the share of the customer who answered "unnecessary" will be transferred to the customer who answered "necessary".

<Second embodiment>
In the first embodiment described above, in the reply notification process, every time a reply is received from a customer, the received reply is notified to all co-owners, but the present invention is not limited to this. FIG. 9 is a flowchart of a management method according to the second embodiment of the invention. FIG. 9 shows the processing to be executed after the industrial property right answered in FIG. 2 is joint ownership (step 04: Yes). In the following explanation, as in the first embodiment, it is assumed that customers A, B, and C have responded in this order for our company number 004.

First, when the processing device 5 receives an answer from the customer A (step 30), it notifies all the customers A, B, and C of the answer (step 31).

Next, when the processing device 5 receives the reply from the customer B (step 32), it determines whether or not the reply from the customer A and the reply from the customer B match (step 33).

If the answer from customer A and the answer from customer B do not match (step 33: No), the processor 5
All of the customers A, B, and C are notified of the respective responses of the customers A and B (step 38). Further, the processing device 5 notifies the customers A and B that the answers are inconsistent and the due date for payment, and inquires again about the necessity of payment of the annuity (step 39).

If the answer of customer A and the answer of customer B match (step 33: Yes), the processing device 5
To wait for a response from customer C without informing another customer C of responses from customers A and B. When the processing device 5 receives the reply from the customer C (step 34), it determines whether or not the replies from the customers A to C match (step 35).

If the response from customer C does not match the response from customers A and B (step 35: No), the processor 5 notifies all customers A, B, and C of the responses from customers A, B, and C ( step 40). Further, the processing device 5 notifies the customers A, B, and C that the responses are inconsistent and the due date for payment, and inquires again about the necessity of payment of the annuity (step 41).

If the response from customer C matches the response from customers A and B (step 35: Yes), processing device 5 notifies customers A, B, and C that the responses match (match notification step).
Further, the processing device 5 determines whether or not the matching answer is payment required (step 37). If the matching answer is "payment required" (step 37: Yes), the previously explained payment processing (step 08) is executed. Non-payment processing (step 07) is executed.

Thus, according to this embodiment, in the answer notification process, each time a second or subsequent answer is received, it is determined whether or not the second and subsequent answers match the first answer, and only if they do not match Notify all co-owners of each response. Since the customer's terminal 6 is updated only when the answers are inconsistent, the customer is likely to notice that the answers are inconsistent.

Further, in the present embodiment, each time the processing device 5 receives the second and subsequent responses, it determines whether the second and subsequent responses match the previously received responses. Execute the re-query step if the answer is different from the answer received before. In other words, when the second and subsequent answers match the previous answers, the answer is not notified to the customer. The update frequency of the customer's terminal 6 becomes low, and conversely, the customer is easily noticed when the answers are inconsistent. note that,
The first person is read as the first company when the customer is a corporation.

<Third embodiment>
In addition, in the first embodiment and the second embodiment described above, an example in which the processing device 5 processes each time an answer is received from a customer has been described, but the present invention is not limited to this. FIG. 10 is a flowchart of a management method according to the third embodiment of the invention. FIG. 10 shows the processing to be executed after the industrial property rights answered in FIG. 2 are shared (step 04: Yes).

As shown in FIG. 10, in this embodiment, after receiving all the responses from customers A, B, and C (step 50), it is determined whether or not the responses from customers A, B, and C match ( step 51). That is, even if the responses from customers A, B, and C are received in this order, the processing device 5 receives the responses from customers A and B immediately after receiving the response from customer A and immediately after receiving the response from customer B, respectively. , C.

If the answers from customers A, B, and C do not match (step 51: No), the processor 5 notifies all of the customers A, B, and C of the answers from customers A, B, and C (step 54). Furthermore, the processing device 5 notifies the customers A, B, and C of the fact that the responses are inconsistent and the payment due date,
Inquiry is made again about the necessity of payment of the annuity (step 55).

If the answer from customer C matches the answers from customers A and B (step 51: Yes), processing device 5 notifies customers A, B, and C that the answers match.
Further, the processing device 5 determines whether or not the matching answer is payment required (step 53). If the matching answer is "payment required" (step 53: Yes), the previously explained payment processing (step 07) is executed. Non-payment processing (step 07) is executed.

In this embodiment, in the reply notification step, after all the replies are received, it is determined whether each reply agrees or disagrees, and in the case of disagreement, each reply is notified to all co-owners. The update frequency of the screen displayed on the customer terminal 6 is lower than in the first embodiment and the second embodiment, making it easier for the customer to notice when the answers do not match. In addition, since the frequency of reinquiry is lower than in the first and second embodiments, it is easy for the customer to notice when the answers are inconsistent.

In addition, in the first to third embodiments described above, an example was explained in which the management device displayed information as shown in FIGS. is not limited to For example, the management device may notify the customer of necessary information by displaying the information on the customer's mobile terminal through a dedicated application. Alternatively, the management device may notify the customer of necessary information by sending an e-mail. Furthermore, the management device may notify the customer of necessary information by printing a printed matter to the customer.

In the above explanation, the case where the customer is the company that owns the industrial property rights has been explained. However, depending on the form of the enterprise, there are cases where the company that owns the industrial property rights and the company that handles the intellectual property of the company that owns the industrial property rights are separate. In such cases, the company that handles the intellectual property of the company that owns the industrial property may ask the pension management company to manage the payment of the expenses on behalf of the company that owns the industrial property. In this case, the customer for the pension management company is the company that handles the intellectual property of the company that owns the industrial property right.

In the above-described embodiment, an example in which the processing device 5 calculates the due date for payment of expenses based on the bibliographic database 2 and the law database 3 has been described, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the bibliographic database 2 may include the next payment due date, and the processing device 5 may acquire the next payment due date from the bibliographic database 2 as necessary. Alternatively, the bibliographic database 2 may contain multiple due dates for subsequent payments. In these cases,
When a pension management company is entrusted with payment of expenses for industrial property rights from a customer, after inputting the bibliographic items necessary for calculating the due date for payment of the expenses into the bibliographic database 2, the processing device 5 processes the laws and regulations database, etc. is used to calculate the next payment due date, and the calculated due date for payment is stored in the bibliographic database 2 .

1 Management device 2 Bibliographic database 3 Law database 4 Customer database 5 Processing device 6 Customer terminal

Claims (15)

A management method for managing payment of expenses necessary to maintain industrial property rights requested by a customer,
a bibliographic database containing bibliographic information necessary for calculating the due date for payment of the expenses necessary for maintaining the industrial property rights requested by the customer;
A management device having a processing device that can access the bibliographic database,
a due date obtaining step of obtaining the payment due date based on the bibliographic database;
a deadline date notification step of notifying the customer of the payment deadline date and inquiring whether or not the payment of the cost is necessary for the industrial property right that is a predetermined period before the payment deadline date;
a response receiving step of receiving a response from each of the customers as to whether or not payment is required;
an answer notification step of notifying all the customers regarding the jointly owned industrial property rights of each of the answers to the jointly owned industrial property rights ;
repeatedly executing the response receiving step and the response notification step until the final response deadline that is a predetermined period before the payment deadline date;
A management method, wherein, after the deadline for the final reply, when the replies are inconsistent, the final processing, the content of which is defined in advance by contract with the customer, is executed. 2. The management method according to claim 1, wherein in said answer notification step, each time an answer is received from said customer, said answer received is notified to said all customers. In the answer notification step, each time a second or subsequent answer is received, it is determined whether or not the second and subsequent answers match the first answer, and if they do not match, each of the answers is notified to all of the customers. The management method according to claim 1. 2. The management method according to claim 1, wherein in said answer notification step, after receiving all the answers, it is determined whether each answer agrees or disagrees, and if not, each said answer is notified to all said customers. a re-inquiry step of notifying the customer of the inconsistency of the answers and the payment due date, and inquiring again whether or not to pay the costs, if the answers received regarding the shared industrial property rights are inconsistent; The management method according to any one of claims 1 to 4 , comprising: 6. The management method according to claim 5 , wherein any re-response received from said customer after said re-inquiry step is notified to all said customers concerning said shared industrial property rights, along with a history of said previously received responses. 7. The management method according to claim 5 or 6 , further comprising a match notification step of notifying said customer that the answers match when the answers received about said shared industrial property rights match. In the answer notification step, each time a second and subsequent answers are received, it is determined whether the second and subsequent answers match the first answer, and when an answer different from the first answer is received, the above-mentioned 8. A management method according to any one of claims 5 to 7 , wherein an interrogation step is performed. 8. The management method according to claim 7 , wherein, after receiving all the answers, it is determined whether each answer matches or does not match, and the re-inquiry step or the match notification step is executed. 10. The management method according to any one of claims 1 to 9 , wherein in said reply notification step, each said reply is notified together with reply date and time. 6. The management method according to claim 5 , wherein in said re-inquiry step, each said reply is notified together with the reply date and time. 3. The management method according to claim 2, wherein, in said answer notification step, every time an answer is received from said customer, all answers already received are notified to said all customers. 3. The management method according to claim 1 or 2 , wherein in said answer notification step, each time an answer is received from said customer, said all customers are notified that an answer has not been received from said customer who has not received an answer. . A management device for managing the payment of expenses necessary to maintain industrial property rights requested by a customer,
a bibliographic database containing bibliographic information necessary for calculating the due date for payment of the expenses necessary for maintaining the industrial property rights requested by the customer;
a processing device capable of accessing the bibliographic database;
The processing device is
a due date obtaining step of obtaining a due date for payment of the fee based on the bibliographic database;
a deadline date notification step of notifying the customer of the payment deadline date and inquiring whether or not the payment of the costs is necessary for the industrial property right that is a predetermined period before the payment deadline date;
a response receiving step of receiving a response from each of the customers as to whether or not payment is required;
a response notification step of notifying each of the responses for the shared industrial property rights to all the customers regarding the shared industrial property rights ;
repeatedly executing the response receiving step and the response notification step until the final response deadline that is a predetermined period before the payment deadline date;
A management device for executing a final process defined in advance by a contract with the customer when the answers are inconsistent after the deadline for the final answer . A program executable on a management device for managing payment of expenses necessary to maintain industrial property rights requested by a customer,
The management device
a bibliographic database containing bibliographic information necessary for calculating the due date for payment of the expenses necessary for maintaining the industrial property rights requested by the customer;
a processing device capable of accessing the bibliographic database;
When the program is executed, the processing device performs a due date obtaining step of obtaining the payment due date based on the bibliographic database;
a deadline date notification step of notifying the customer of the payment deadline date and inquiring whether or not the payment of the costs is necessary for the industrial property right that is a predetermined period before the payment deadline date;
a response receiving step of receiving a response from each of the customers as to whether or not payment is required;
a response notification step of notifying all the customers regarding the shared industrial property rights of each of the responses to the shared industrial property rights ;
repeatedly executing the response receiving step and the response notification step until the final response deadline that is a predetermined period before the payment deadline date;
A program for managing the execution of a final process, the contents of which are pre-determined by contract with the customer, when the answers are inconsistent after the deadline for the final answer .

Images