JP7161350B2 - Industrial property right cost estimation system and method - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an industrial property cost estimation system and method.

Industrial property rights such as patents, utility models, designs, and trademarks incur considerable costs until they are acquired, and in addition, considerable costs are incurred in maintaining the industrial property rights. Companies are required to manage the costs related to these industrial property rights. Therefore, for example, the method described in Patent Document 1 is known as a method of managing costs over the life cycle of a patent application.

JP 2015-502623 A

By the way, companies sometimes apply for patents jointly with other companies. Taking patent applications as an example, we set the share of expenses based on a contract with a joint applicant. When estimating future costs for multiple patent applications, including joint applications, it is complicated to estimate costs when patent applications related to sole ownership and patent applications related to joint ownership are mixed. Become. Moreover, it would be good if the cost sharing rate was set uniformly, but in reality, various sharing rates are set according to each partner of the joint application, each patent application, each country of application, and so on. For this reason, it has been troublesome to manage the costs related to joint applications and jointly owned industrial property rights together with the costs related to single applications and single owned industrial property rights.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an industrial property right cost estimation system and method capable of estimating both the cost of a sole-owned industrial property right and the cost of a jointly held industrial property right.

According to the invention,
A case database containing identification information that can identify a specific industrial property right, the filing date, the filing country, the type of right, and the bibliographic items required to calculate the cost related to the industrial property right;
A legal database that records all types of procedures from application to maintenance of rights, and standard time schedules for each of the procedures or claims for each type of industrial property right;
a cost database in which the agency fees and attorney fees required for each of the procedures are recorded;
A system for estimating future costs for all procedures from application to maintenance for one or more industrial property rights using
identifying future proceedings for each industrial property right based on said case database and said legal database as scheduled proceedings;
calculating a scheduled billing amount and a scheduled billing date in the scheduled procedure based on the case database, the legal database, and the cost database;
Based on the scheduled billing amount and the scheduled billing date for all industrial property rights, the total scheduled billing amount for each fiscal year is calculated by summing the scheduled billing amounts belonging to the same scheduled billing date. has been
When calculating the annual billing amount, the system calculates the annual billing amount by multiplying the annual billing amount by the division ratio for the industrial property rights for which the apportionment ratio is set. An industrial property cost estimating system is provided that is configured to calculate a projected amount.

Also according to the present invention,
A case database containing identification information that can identify a specific industrial property right, the filing date, the filing country, the type of right, and the bibliographic items required to calculate the cost related to the industrial property right;
A legal database that records all types of procedures from application to maintenance of rights, and standard time schedules for each of the procedures or claims for each type of industrial property right;
a cost database in which the agency fees and attorney fees required for each of the procedures are recorded;
A system for estimating future costs for all procedures from application to maintenance for one or more industrial property rights using
identifying future proceedings for each industrial property right based on said case database and said legal database as scheduled proceedings;
calculating a scheduled billing amount and a scheduled billing date in the scheduled procedure based on the case database, the legal database, and the cost database;
Based on the scheduled billing amount and the scheduled billing date for all industrial property rights, calculate the total monthly scheduled billing amount generated on a monthly basis by summing the scheduled billing amounts belonging to the same scheduled billing date in the same year and month. is configured as
When calculating the scheduled monthly billing amount, the system calculates the monthly billing amount by multiplying the scheduled billing amount by the sharing rate for industrial property rights for which a sharing ratio has been set. An industrial property cost estimating system is provided that is configured to calculate a projected amount.

Also according to the present invention,
A case database containing identification information that can identify a specific industrial property right, the filing date, the filing country, the type of right, and the bibliographic items required to calculate the cost related to the industrial property right;
A legal database that records all types of procedures from application to maintenance of rights, and standard time schedules for each of the procedures or claims for each type of industrial property right;
a cost database in which the agency fees and attorney fees required for each of the procedures are recorded;
a processor; non-transitory recording means for recording computer readable instructions executed by said processor;
a method of estimating future costs associated with all filing to maintenance procedures for one or more industrial property rights using
identifying future proceedings for each industrial property right based on the case database and the legal database as scheduled proceedings;
calculating a scheduled billing amount and a scheduled billing date in the scheduled procedure based on the case database, the legal database, and the cost database;
Based on the scheduled billing amount and the scheduled billing date of all industrial property rights, the billing schedule amount that belongs to the same scheduled billing date is summed up to calculate the annual billing schedule amount generated for each year. cage,
When calculating the annual billing schedule, for industrial property rights for which a sharing ratio is set, the annual billing schedule is calculated by using the sharing amount obtained by multiplying the billing schedule by the sharing ratio. A method for estimating the cost of industrial property rights is provided.

Also according to the present invention,
A case database containing identification information that can identify a specific industrial property right, the filing date, the filing country, the type of right, and the bibliographic items required to calculate the cost related to the industrial property right;
A legal database that records all types of procedures from application to maintenance of rights, and standard time schedules for each of the procedures or claims for each type of industrial property right;
a cost database in which the agency fees and attorney fees required for each of the procedures are recorded;
a processor; non-transitory recording means for recording computer readable instructions executed by said processor;
a method of estimating future costs associated with all filing to maintenance procedures for one or more industrial property rights using
identifying future proceedings for each industrial property right based on the case database and the legal database as scheduled proceedings;
calculating a scheduled billing amount and a scheduled billing date in the scheduled procedure based on the case database, the legal database, and the cost database;
Based on the scheduled billing amount and the scheduled billing date for all industrial property rights, the scheduled billing amount that belongs to the same year and the same month with the scheduled billing date is added to calculate the monthly scheduled billing amount that occurs on a monthly basis. is composed of
When calculating the monthly scheduled billing amount, for industrial property rights for which a sharing ratio has been set, the monthly billing scheduled amount is calculated by using the sharing amount obtained by multiplying the scheduled billing amount by the sharing ratio. A method for estimating the cost of industrial property rights is provided, the method being configured to:

According to the present invention, an industrial property cost estimating system and method is provided that can jointly estimate the cost of a sole proprietorship and a jointly held industrial property.

1 is a block diagram showing an industrial property right cost estimation system according to a first embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 4 is a flowchart of processing executed by a main server according to the first embodiment of the present invention; 1 shows an example of an item database according to the first embodiment of the present invention. 1 shows an example of a legal database in the first embodiment of the present invention; 1 shows an example of an intermediate database in the first embodiment of the present invention; 1 shows an example of a cost database in the first embodiment of the present invention; 1 shows an example of an annual billing amount according to the first embodiment of the present invention. 1 shows an example of an item database in the second embodiment of the present invention. 1 shows an example of a legal database in the second embodiment of the present invention; 3 shows an example of an intermediate database in the second embodiment of the present invention; 1 shows an example of a cost database in the second embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 10 shows an example of monthly billing schedule and annual billing schedule in the second embodiment of the present invention. FIG. FIG. 11 shows an example of an item database according to a modification of the second embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 1 shows an example of an intermediate database according to a modification 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 an industrial property right cost estimation system (hereinafter simply referred to as system 1) according to a first embodiment of the present invention. The system 1 has terminals 2 of a plurality of users, a main server 10 and a data server 20 . This system 1 calculates, for each user who applies for or holds an industrial property right, the future cost of the industrial property right held by the user on a monthly or yearly basis.

The costs estimated by the present invention are the costs required for patent, utility model, design, and trademark applications, costs incurred while patent applications, utility model applications, design applications, and trademark applications are pending at the Patent Office, patent rights - Expenses for maintaining utility model rights, design cases, and trademark cases.
In the following description, an industrial property right, an industrial property right pending application, and an industrial property right scheduled to be applied for may be collectively referred to simply as a case.
The first embodiment to be described below is an example in which the present invention is applied to estimate the cost required to maintain a more predictable industrial property right.

The main server 10 has a processor 11 (central processing unit), a temporary recording device (RAM 12), and a non-temporary recording device (ROM 13 or HDD). When the program (computer-readable instructions) recorded in the ROM 13 (non-temporary recording means) is developed in the RAM 12 and executed by the processor 11, the method for estimating the cost of industrial property rights, which will be described in detail below, is executed.

A user terminal 2 is communicably connected to a main server 10 via a network 3 . The user's terminal 2 may be a terminal owned by the user, or may be a terminal that the user logged in does not own. A terminal may be a personal computer, a tablet terminal, or a mobile phone terminal.

The data server 20 is communicably connected to the main server 10 via the network 3 . The data server 20 includes a user database, a case database, a legal database, and a cost database, which will be detailed below. The data server 20 and the main server 10 may be configured as one device, or the main server 10 and the data server 20 may be configured as independent devices.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart of processing executed by the main server 10 . As shown in FIG. 2, the main server 10 first performs login processing (S01).
When the main server 10 executes the login process, the main server 10 acquires user identification information and a password from the terminal 2 of the user. User identification information and passwords are recorded in the user database. The main server 10 identifies that the user has logged in when the acquired user identification information and password match the user identification information and password registered in the user database.
Hereinafter, it is assumed that user AAA has logged into the system 1 .

Next, the main server 10 acquires the definition of the fiscal year (step S02). The definition of the year is the start month (or end month) of the year according to the user. For example, the fiscal year referred to by user AAA may refer to the period from April to March of the next year, and the fiscal year referred to by user BBB may refer to the period from January to December. The system 1 is configured so as to be able to calculate expenses for each year according to the user's definition of the year. Note that the year definition may be configured to be acquired from the terminal 2 of the user. Alternatively, the definition of the user's year may be recorded in the user database, and the definition of the specific user's year may be obtained from the user database.
In the following description, it is assumed that user AAA has defined a fiscal year with April as the start month of the fiscal year.

Next, the main server 10 acquires the year or month that the user wants to display (step S03). The year that the user wants to display is, for example, the three years of the current year, the next year, and the year after next. Alternatively, the month that the user wants to display is, for example, December of this year, or six months from April of this year. The year or month to be displayed may be obtained from the terminal 2 of the user. Alternatively, the year or month desired to be displayed by the user is recorded in the user database, and the year or month desired to be displayed by the specific user may be obtained from the user database.
Hereinafter, in the first embodiment, it is assumed that 20 years from the current year (2018) to 2038 are the years that the user AAA wants to display.

Next, the main server 10 acquires project information for calculating an estimate (step S04). The project information is information related to the project whose cost is to be estimated. In this embodiment, the item information is registered in the item database in advance. The main server 10 extracts information on the items held by the specified user. Alternatively, the main server 10 may be configured to acquire a plurality of item information from the terminal 2 of the user. Alternatively, the user may have accumulated the item information in his own database. Therefore, the main server 10 may be configured to acquire this database from a user's terminal or the like.
In the following description, it is assumed that the user AAA has logged into the system 1, and an example will be described in which all projects held by the user AAA are targets for cost estimation calculation.

First, FIGS. 3 to 7 show an example of a first embodiment in which the present invention is applied to an estimate relating to the payment procedure for a patent fee or registration fee for an industrial property right, which must be paid at regular intervals in order to maintain the right. will be used to explain.

FIG. 3 shows an example of the case database. As shown in FIG. 3, the matter database includes, for example, matter ID, user ID, user reference number, type, country of application, application number, basic filing date, actual filing date, registration date, number of claims, number of pages, Includes number of drawings, number of divisions, groups and division ratio.
Note that April 1, 2018 is assumed as the current date in the following description.

The case ID is identification information given to each case so that the business operator who operates this system 1 can identify each case. The case ID may include numbers, alphabets, symbols, and the like.

A user ID is identification information given to an individual user so that an operator who operates this system 1 can identify the individual user. User IDs may also include numbers, alphabets, symbols, and the like.

A user reference number is a number assigned to an item by each user. For example, if a user wishes to know the cost estimate for a particular user reference number, the estimate can be calculated by specifying the user reference number. The user reference number may also include alphabets, symbols, etc. in addition to numbers.

The type indicates whether the item is a patent, a utility model, a design, or a trademark. In FIG. 3, P indicates a patent, U indicates a utility model, D indicates a design, and T indicates a trademark.

The country of filing is the country in which the matter is filed. JP means filing with the Japan Patent Office, US means filing with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, EP means filing with the European Patent Office, and CN means filing with the Chinese Patent Office. .

The basic filing date is the filing date of the first country. For applications claiming priority under the Paris Convention, this is the filing date of the application claiming priority.

The actual filing date is the actual filing date of the second country. In the first country application, the basic filing date and the actual filing date are the same.

The date of registration is the date on which the industrial property right was registered.

The number of claims, the number of pages, the number of drawings, the number of divisions, etc. are items used in calculating the estimated cost. For example, patent fees for Japanese patent applications are determined according to the number of claims and the number of years elapsed since the date of registration. Alternatively, the office fee required for renewal of a registered trademark in Japan is determined according to the number of classes. Thus, the case database contains the bibliographic items required to calculate the costs required for procedures to maintain rights.
Groups and allocation ratios will be explained in detail later.

In step S04, the main server 10 collates the case database and extracts cases with the user ID AAA indicating the user AAA. In the illustrated example, case IDs 00001 to 00006 are subject to the following processing.

Next, the main server 10 identifies a scheduled procedure (step S05). The main server 10 estimates the costs of all future proceedings on multiple industrial property rights in question. Therefore, the main server 10 identifies all procedures that will occur in the future using the case database and the legal database. The main server 10 outputs all identified future scheduled procedures to the intermediate database. In the illustrated example, for case IDs 00001 to 00006, all scheduled procedures are output to the intermediate database shown in FIG.

FIG. 4 shows an example of a legal database. The legal database records, for each type of industrial property right, all types of procedures for maintaining rights, and standard time schedules for claims for each of said procedures. In the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 4, the legal database stores all types of procedures for maintaining industrial property rights, the starting dates necessary for calculating the scheduled dates for the procedures, and It includes the number of days until the procedure occurs. For example, in a Japanese patent, approximately 1460 days have passed since the filing date of the basic application before a charge for the payment of the fourth year registration fee arises.

This legal database is based on the history of a large number of past applications, and records how long each procedure will take place from the start date. This legal database is preferably updated periodically to reflect the most recent situation.

In FIG. 4, it is assumed that the basic filing date, the actual filing date, and the registration date are used as the starting dates, but this is not the only option. Only the basic filing date and the registration date may be used as the starting dates, or other dates may be used as the starting dates. The legal database may also record a standard time schedule for procedures to occur. The legal database may record the standard number of days required from the initial calculation date until the procedure occurs, or may record the standard required number of months from the initial calculation date until the procedure occurs. .

FIG. 5 shows an example of an intermediate database. As shown in FIG. 5, in the intermediate database, all procedures are listed for each case, and the scheduled billing date for each procedure is specified.
For example, case ID 00001 is a Japanese patent right. Therefore, the main server 10 uses the legal database shown in FIG. 4 to identify the scheduled procedures that will occur in the future and the scheduled billing dates for each procedure for case ID 00001, and creates the intermediate database shown in FIG. Case ID 00001 will be specifically described.

First, the main server 10 identifies the scheduled billing date for each scheduled procedure. From FIG. 4, the scheduled billing date for the payment of the patent fee for the fourth year in Japan occurs after 1460 days have passed since the date of registration. From FIG. 3, the registration date is July 19, 2015. Therefore, the main server 10 specifies July 18, 2019 as the scheduled billing date for the fourth year patent fee payment for the case ID 00001, as shown in the intermediate database of FIG.

Similarly, the main server 10 sets July 17, 2020, which is 1825 days after the registration date, as the scheduled billing date for the payment of the patent fee in the fifth year, and the scheduled billing date for the sixth year as the registration date. Specify July 17, 2021, which is 2190 days after from .

The main server 10 records these specified scheduled procedures and their respective scheduled billing dates as an intermediate database shown in FIG.

Returning to FIG. 2, next, the main server 10 acquires the allotment ratio set for each case (step S06). In this embodiment, the assignment ratio is recorded in the case database of FIG. Therefore, the main server 10 acquires the allotment ratio from the case database. Note that, unlike this example, the allocation ratio may be obtained from the terminal 2 of the user for each project.

According to the case database of FIG. 3, the allotment ratio of case ID 00001 is 20%. Therefore, the main server 10 writes 20% in the sharing ratio of the case ID 00001 in the intermediate database. After that, the allotment ratio is acquired for all cases of the user AAA and written in the intermediate database. Note that, in this example, the division ratio is set to 100% for columns in which the division ratio is not entered in the project database.

The sharing ratio is an index that represents the ratio of the user's share of the costs related to the matter. For example, if a certain application A is jointly owned by two companies, A and B, there are cases where the ratio of sharing between A and B is 50:50, or 30% for A and 70% for B. be. Alternatively, even if the foreign applications have the same basic application, the apportionment ratio of Party A may be 30% for the US application and 50% for the Chinese application. Various sharing ratios are stipulated depending on the project, such as contracts related to joint development. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 3, the allocation ratio is set for each project.

Returning to FIG. 2, the main server 10 next calculates the expected billing amount (step S07). The estimated billing amount is calculated using the cost database shown in FIG. First, regarding the payment of the patent fee for the fourth year, the office fee and user AAA's agent fee recorded in the cost database are referred to, and the sum of these amounts is written in the intermediate database of FIG. 5 as the temporary invoice amount. Further, the main server 10 multiplies the primary billed amount by the share ratio to calculate the scheduled billing amount.

The cost database records the agency fees and attorney fees required for each procedure. The main server 10 calculates the sum of the agency fee and the agent fee as the primary invoice amount. The cost database shown in FIG. 6 records the cost required for each procedure as a direct numerical value or a calculation formula for calculating the cost.

In this embodiment, the agent's fee structure is classified into a generally higher A rank, a generally lower C rank, and an intermediate B rank and recorded. Also, users often make use of specific agents. Alternatively, some users may ask their agents to set a special fee structure. The cost database may then record agent costs for user A. Alternatively, a cost database may simply record a number of agents' identities along with their fee structure, and may be a designated agent pre-registered by the user (e.g., registered in a user database, etc.) according to the user and country of filing of the case. It may be configured such that a fee structure tailored to the person is selected.

Note that the cost database is updated as appropriate. For example, update agency fees in response to legal changes. Alternatively, the costs are periodically updated to reflect the most recent currency rate. Alternatively, periodically update agent fees to reflect changes in agent fees.

Returning to FIG. 2, the main server 10 next calculates at least one of the annual billing amount and the monthly billing amount (step S08). As shown in FIG. 5, the scheduled billing date and the scheduled billing amount are organized as an intermediate database.

As described above, in this example, it is assumed that the user AAA wishes to obtain an estimate for 20 years from 2018 to 2037. Therefore, the main server 10 calculates the annual scheduled billing amount by adding together the scheduled billing amounts belonging to the same fiscal year with the same scheduled billing date. Here, as described above, the fiscal year of user AAA starts in April. Therefore, for example, the scheduled billing amount for the fiscal year 2018 is calculated by totaling the scheduled billing amounts belonging to the scheduled billing dates from April 2018 to March 2019. The scheduled billing amount for fiscal year 2019 is calculated by totaling the scheduled billing amounts belonging to the scheduled billing dates from April 2019 to March 2020. In this way, as shown in FIG. 7, the annual billing amount for 20 years from 2018 to 2027 is calculated.

Here, the main server 10 calculates the scheduled billing amount by multiplying the primary billing amount by the allotment ratio. In other words, when calculating the annual billing schedule, for industrial property rights for which a sharing ratio has been set, the annual billing schedule is calculated using the sharing amount obtained by multiplying the billing schedule by the sharing ratio. .

Returning to FIG. 2, the main server 10 outputs the calculated estimated billing amount for each year to the user's terminal 2 (step S09). The main server 10 may cause the display device of the user's terminal 2 to display the estimated billing amount for each year as a numerical value, or may display it as a graph so that the change for each year can be easily understood. Alternatively, it may be displayed for each type of industrial property right or for each type of procedure. Alternatively, the display method may be configured to be customizable by the user.

As described above, according to the cost estimation system 1 for industrial property rights and the method thereof according to the present embodiment, the allocation ratio is specified for each case, and the estimated amount to be claimed is calculated by multiplying the primary invoice amount by the allocation ratio. . For this reason, it is possible to estimate both the cost of maintaining the industrial property rights held independently and the cost of maintaining the jointly held industrial property rights. In particular, although it is relatively easy to estimate the costs related to maintaining industrial property rights owned by oneself, the costs related to maintaining industrial property rights related to joint ownership with various sharing ratios are It was very complicated to make an estimate together with the cost of maintaining property rights. According to the present system 1 and method, it is possible to collectively estimate the costs related to maintenance of industrial property rights related to joint ownership and the costs related to maintenance of industrial property rights related to independent ownership. As a result, the user's burden of managing expenses required for maintenance of industrial property rights, such as budget compilation, is greatly reduced.

The system 1 and method allow users to easily estimate costs for annual budgeting for industrial property rights.

In the above-described embodiment, an example in which estimates are calculated for all projects held by the user has been described, but the present invention is not limited to this. This system 1 acquires the extraction conditions, specifies those among all the cases registered in the case database that meet the extraction conditions as the industrial property rights to be estimated, It may be configured to calculate an estimated amount to be billed every time.
For example, it is possible to obtain a range of basic filing dates and types of rights for which an estimate is to be calculated, and to calculate an estimate only for cases belonging to this range.

Further, as indicated by "group" in FIG. 3, the case database of the present embodiment includes group identification information with which groups to which industrial property rights can be identified can be identified. This system 1 is configured to be able to calculate the expected claim amount for maintenance of industrial property rights belonging to a specific group based on the case database.
For example, a company may manage industrial property rights on a business or project basis. The user can then assign Group 1 to industrial property rights related to a business. This makes it possible to easily extract only group 1 and obtain an estimate. In this way, the group identification information is information that can be arbitrarily designated by the user.

In the above-described first embodiment, an example in which the present invention is applied to an estimate relating to payment procedures for patent fees or registration fees for industrial property rights has been described. The payment deadline for such costs related to maintenance of rights is clearly stipulated by law for each country and each type of industrial property right, so it is easy to accurately predict the date when the costs will be paid. However, the present invention is not limited to this. Next, a second embodiment will be described in which the present invention is applied to estimates relating to all procedures from application to maintenance of rights, including procedures for payment of patent fees or registration fees from application. Also in the second embodiment, the system and flowchart for calculating an estimate are common to the system and flowchart of the first embodiment. Therefore, the second embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2 as appropriate.

<Second embodiment>
FIG. 8 shows an example of the case database of the second embodiment. As shown in FIG. 8, the case database includes, for example, case ID, user ID, user reference number, classification, application country, application number, basic filing date, actual filing date, examination request date, directive notification date, registration date , the number of claims, the number of pages, the number of drawings, the number of divisions, the groups, and the allocation ratio.
Note that April 1, 2018 is assumed as the current date in the following description. In FIG. 8, billing dates for procedures occurring before April 1, 2018 have been entered. Billing dates for proceedings scheduled to occur after April 2, 2018 are left blank.
Also, in the second embodiment, it is assumed that the user AAA wants to obtain an estimate of the costs required for all the procedures related to the maintenance of rights from the applications filed for three years from 2018 to 2020.

Case ID, user ID, user reference number, type, country of application, basic filing date, actual filing date, registration date, number of claims, number of pages, number of drawings, number of divisions, etc. Similar to morphology.

The date of request for examination is the date on which the request for examination is made. In countries such as the United States that do not have an examination request system, [n/a] is entered to indicate that there is no examination request date.

The date of notification of the action is the date on which the notice of reasons for refusal was notified. When a notice of reasons for refusal is not issued as in the case of a Japanese utility model, n/a is entered as the date of notification of the action. In the example shown in the drawing, it is assumed that the instruction is issued only once, but the case database may be configured on the premise that the instruction will be issued multiple times.

In step S04, the main server 10 collates the case database and extracts cases with the user ID AAA indicating the user AAA. In the illustrated example, case IDs 1001 to 1006 are subject to the following processing.

Next, the main server 10 identifies a scheduled procedure (step S05). The main server 10 estimates the costs of all future proceedings on multiple industrial property rights in question. Therefore, the main server 10 identifies all procedures that will occur in the future using the case database and the legal database. The main server 10 outputs all identified future scheduled procedures to the intermediate database. In the illustrated example, all scheduled procedures for case IDs 1001 to 1006 are output to the intermediate database shown in FIG.

FIG. 9 shows an example of the legal database. The legal database records, for each type of industrial property right, all types of procedures from application to maintenance of rights, and a standard time schedule for requesting each of the above procedures. In the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 9, the legal database stores all types of procedures from filing an industrial property right to maintaining the right, the start date required to calculate the scheduled date when the procedure will occur, and the start date. It contains the number of days from date to occurrence of the procedure. For example, in Japanese patents, approximately 500 days elapse from the date of filing of the basic application before the fee for requesting examination arises.

This legal database is based on the history of a large number of past applications, and records how long each procedure will take place from the start date. This legal database is regularly updated to reflect the most recent data.

In FIG. 9, it is assumed that the basic filing date, the actual filing date, and the registration date are used as the starting dates, but this is not the only option. Only the basic filing date and the registration date may be used as the starting dates, or other dates may be used as the starting dates. The legal database may also record a standard time schedule for procedures to occur. The legal database may record the standard number of days required from the initial calculation date until the procedure occurs, or may record the standard required number of months from the initial calculation date until the procedure occurs. .

Also, in the legal database shown in FIG. 9, only one correspondence (notification of reasons for refusal) is registered. You may register the correspondence of the document. In addition, although only typical procedures are shown in FIG. 9, all necessary procedures are registered based on each country or type of industrial property right.

FIG. 10 shows an example of the intermediate database. As shown in FIG. 10, in the intermediate database, all procedures are listed for each case, and the scheduled billing date for each procedure is specified.
For example, case ID 01001 is a Japanese patent application. Therefore, the main server 10 uses the legal database shown in FIG. 9 to identify the scheduled procedures that will occur in the future and the scheduled billing dates for each procedure for case ID 01001, and creates the intermediate database shown in FIG. Case ID 01001 will be specifically described.

First, the main server 10 distinguishes between procedures that have already occurred and are registered in the case database shown in FIG. 8, and procedures that have not yet occurred and are not registered in the case database. The main server 10 determines from the case database that the order is the most recent procedure and that no subsequent procedures have occurred. Therefore, the main server 10 uses the legal database shown in FIG. 9 to identify all scheduled procedures such as payment of the registration fee, payment of the patent fee in the fourth year, and patent fee in the fifth year and beyond as scheduled procedures that occur after the directive. do. Note that FIG. 10 does not show the procedure for paying patent fees from the sixth year onward.

Further, the main server 10 identifies the scheduled billing date for each scheduled procedure. From FIG. 9, the scheduled billing date for payment of the registration fee occurs 800 days after the actual filing date. From FIG. 8, the actual filing date is February 3, 2016. Therefore, the main server 10 specifies April 13, 2018 as the scheduled billing date related to the payment of the registration fee for case ID 01001, as shown in the intermediate database of FIG.

Similarly, the main server 10 sets May 17, 2023, which is 1460 days after the registration date, as the scheduled billing date for the fourth-year patent fee payment, and sets the scheduled billing date for the fifth-year patent fee payment as the registration date. May 16, 2024, which is 1825 days after from , is specified.

The main server 10 records these identified scheduled procedures and their scheduled billing dates as an intermediate database shown in FIG.

Returning to FIG. 2, next, the main server 10 acquires the allotment ratio set for each case (step S06). In this embodiment, the assignment ratio is recorded in the case database of FIG. Therefore, the main server 10 acquires the allotment ratio from the case database. Note that, unlike this example, the allocation ratio may be obtained from the terminal 2 of the user for each project.

According to the case database of FIG. 8, the allotment ratio of case ID 01001 is 20%. Therefore, the main server 10 writes 20% in the sharing ratio of the case ID 01001 in the intermediate database. After that, the allotment ratio is acquired for all cases of the user AAA and written to the intermediate database. Note that, in this example, the division ratio is set to 100% for columns in which the division ratio is not entered in the project database.

The sharing ratio is an index that represents the ratio of the user's share of the costs related to the matter. For example, if a certain application A is jointly owned by two companies, A and B, there are cases where the sharing ratio between A and B is 50/50, or 30% for A and 70% for B. Sometimes. Alternatively, even if the foreign applications have the same basic application, the apportionment ratio of Party A may be 30% for the US application and 50% for the Chinese application. Various sharing ratios are stipulated depending on the project, such as contracts related to joint development. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 8, the allocation ratio is set for each project.

Returning to FIG. 2, the main server 10 next calculates the expected billing amount (step S07). The expected billing amount is calculated using the cost database shown in FIG. First, regarding the payment of the registration fee, the agency fee and user AAA's agent fee recorded in the cost database are referred to, and the sum of these amounts is written in the intermediate database shown in FIG. 10 as the temporary invoice amount. Further, the main server 10 multiplies the primary billed amount by the share ratio to calculate the scheduled billing amount.

The cost database records the agency fees and attorney fees required for each procedure. The main server 10 calculates the sum of the agency fee and the agent fee as the primary invoice amount. The cost database shown in FIG. 11 records the cost required for each procedure as a direct numerical value or a calculation formula for calculating the cost.

In this embodiment, the agent's fee structure is classified into a generally higher A rank, a generally lower C rank, and an intermediate B rank and recorded. Also, users often make use of specific agents. Alternatively, some users may ask their agents to set a special fee structure. The cost database may then record agent costs for user A. Alternatively, a cost database may simply record a number of agents' identities along with their fee structure, and may be a designated agent pre-registered by the user (e.g., registered in a user database, etc.) according to the user and country of filing of the case. It may be configured such that a fee structure tailored to the person is selected.

Note that the cost database is updated as appropriate. For example, update agency fees in response to legal changes. Alternatively, the costs are periodically updated to reflect the most recent currency rate. Alternatively, periodically update agent fees to reflect changes in agent fees.

Returning to FIG. 2, the main server 10 next calculates at least one of the annual billing amount and the monthly billing amount (step S08). As shown in FIG. 10, the scheduled billing date and the scheduled billing amount are organized as an intermediate database.

As described above, in this example, it is assumed that the user AAA wishes to obtain an estimate for the three years of the current year, the next year, and the year after next. Therefore, the main server 10 calculates the monthly scheduled billing amount by adding together the scheduled billing amount belonging to the same month of the same year for each month from the present (April 2018). Also, as described above, the fiscal year of user AAA starts in April. Therefore, the planned monthly billing amount from April 2018 to March 2019 is totaled to calculate the annual billing amount for fiscal 2018. Calculate the estimated billing amount. In this way, as shown in FIG. 12, the planned billing amount for fiscal year 2018, the planned billing amount for fiscal year 2019, and the planned billing amount for fiscal year 2020 are calculated.

It goes without saying that the annual scheduled billing amount may be directly calculated by adding together the scheduled billing amounts belonging to the same fiscal year with the same scheduled billing date from the interim database in FIG. 10 without calculating the monthly scheduled billing amount. be.

Here, the main server 10 calculates the scheduled billing amount by multiplying the primary billing amount by the share ratio. In other words, when calculating the annual billing schedule, for industrial property rights for which a sharing ratio has been set, the annual billing schedule is calculated using the sharing amount obtained by multiplying the billing schedule by the sharing ratio. be. In addition, when calculating the monthly billing schedule, for industrial property rights for which a sharing ratio has been set, the monthly billing schedule is calculated using the sharing amount obtained by multiplying the billing schedule by the sharing ratio. be.

Returning to FIG. 2, the main server 10 outputs at least one of the calculated annual billing amount and monthly billing amount to the user's terminal 2 (step S09). The main server 10 may display at least one of the annual billing amount and the monthly billing amount as a numerical value on the display device of the user's terminal 2, or display it graphically so as to understand annual or monthly fluctuations. may be displayed. Alternatively, it may be displayed for each type of industrial property right or for each type of procedure. Alternatively, the display method may be configured to be customizable by the user.

As described above, according to the cost estimation system 1 for industrial property rights and the method thereof according to the present embodiment, the allocation ratio is specified for each case, and the estimated amount to be claimed is calculated by multiplying the primary invoice amount by the allocation ratio. . For this reason, the cost of a sole-holding industrial property right and the cost of a jointly held industrial property right can be estimated together. In particular, although it is relatively easy to estimate the costs related to own industrial property rights, the costs related to jointly owned industrial property rights with various sharing ratios should be estimated together with the costs related to independent ownership. It was very complicated. According to the present system 1 and method, it is possible to collectively estimate the costs related to the joint ownership of the industrial property rights and the costs related to the independent ownership of the industrial property rights. As a result, the user's burden associated with management of expenses required for industrial property rights, such as budget compilation, is greatly reduced.

The system 1 and method allow users to easily estimate costs for annual budgeting. In addition, since it is possible to predict fluctuations in monthly billing amounts, it is easy to manage funds.

In the above embodiment, the billing date of the procedure that has already occurred is entered in the case database, and the main server 10 identifies the scheduled procedure based on this, but the present invention is not limited to this. FIG. 13 shows an example of the item database according to the modification of the present invention.
As shown in FIG. 13, the case database records only the basic filing date, the actual filing date, and the registration date, and does not record the request dates for other procedures such as request for examination. Even with such a case database, based on the legal database shown in FIG. 9, the billing date when the cost is incurred or the scheduled billing date when the cost is incurred for all procedures as shown in the intermediate database of FIG. can be calculated.

Using this intermediate database, we calculate the monthly billing amount by adding together the billing amounts that belong to the same month of the same year with the billing due date, and add the billing amounts that belong to the same fiscal year with the billing due date to calculate the annual billing amount. It is possible to calculate the amount to be billed each time. As a result, although there is a possibility that the cost prediction accuracy will be slightly reduced, the user's effort to input the item information is greatly reduced, and the system 1 and method that are easier to use are provided.

In the above embodiment, the case information is registered in advance in the case database, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, after the login process, the item information for which the cost is to be estimated may be obtained from the terminal 2 of the user. Note that it is preferable that the item information acquired from the user's terminal 2 is recorded in the item database.

In the above embodiment, for convenience of explanation, the configuration for outputting the intermediate database has been described. However, it is also possible to directly calculate the expected billing amount for each year or each month without outputting the intermediate database. In addition, it goes without saying that the intermediate database does not have to include the starting date of calculation, the number of days to be added, the sharing ratio, the primary billing amount, and the like.

In the above-described embodiment, an example in which estimates are calculated for all projects held by the user has been described, but the present invention is not limited to this. This system 1 acquires the extraction conditions, specifies those among all the cases registered in the case database that meet the extraction conditions as the industrial property rights to be estimated, It may be configured to calculate the monthly scheduled billing amount or the monthly scheduled billing amount.
For example, it is possible to obtain a range of basic filing dates and types of rights for which an estimate is to be calculated, and to calculate an estimate only for cases belonging to this range.

1 system 2 user terminal 3 network 10 main server 11 processor 12 RAM
13 ROMs
20 data server 21 user database 22 case database 23 legal database 24 cost database 25 intermediate database

Claims (10)

a project database containing identification information capable of identifying a specific industrial property right, filing date, filing country, type of right, and bibliographic items required to calculate costs related to the industrial property right;
a legal database in which all types of procedures from application to maintenance of rights and standard time schedules for each of the procedures or claims thereof are recorded for each type of industrial property right;
a cost database in which the agency fees and attorney fees required for each of the procedures are recorded;
a system for estimating future costs associated with all said procedures from application to maintenance for one or more said industrial property rights, said system comprising:
identifying future proceedings for each of said industrial property rights as scheduled proceedings based on said case database and said legal database;
calculating a scheduled billing amount and a scheduled billing date in the scheduled procedure based on the case database, the legal database, and the cost database;
Based on the scheduled billing amount and the scheduled billing date for all of the industrial property rights, summing the scheduled billing amounts belonging to the same fiscal year as the scheduled billing date to calculate the total annual billing schedule amount generated for each fiscal year. is configured as
When calculating the estimated amount billed for each fiscal year, for the industrial property rights for which a sharing ratio has been set, the system uses an amount to be shared that is obtained by multiplying the scheduled amount billed by the ratio for each fiscal year. An industrial property cost estimating system configured to calculate an estimated claim amount. a project database containing identification information capable of identifying a specific industrial property right, filing date, filing country, type of right, and bibliographic items required to calculate costs related to the industrial property right;
a legal database in which all types of procedures from application to maintenance of rights and standard time schedules for each of the procedures or claims thereof are recorded for each type of industrial property right;
a cost database in which the agency fees and attorney fees required for each of the procedures are recorded;
a system for estimating future costs associated with all said procedures from application to maintenance for one or more said industrial property rights, said system comprising:
identifying future proceedings for each of said industrial property rights as scheduled proceedings based on said case database and said legal database;
calculating a scheduled billing amount and a scheduled billing date in the scheduled procedure based on the case database, the legal database, and the cost database;
Based on the scheduled billing amount and the scheduled billing date for all the industrial property rights, the total amount of the monthly scheduled billing amount generated on a monthly basis by summing the scheduled billing amounts belonging to the same year and the same month as the scheduled billing date is configured to calculate
When calculating the monthly scheduled billing amount, the system calculates the monthly billing amount for the industrial property rights for which a sharing ratio is set, by using the sharing amount obtained by multiplying the sharing rate by the scheduled billing amount. An industrial property cost estimating system configured to calculate an estimated claim amount. 3. The system for estimating the cost of industrial property rights according to claim 2, wherein the annual billing schedule for each year is calculated based on the monthly billing schedule. 3. The cost estimation system for industrial property rights according to claim 1 or 2, wherein said share ratio is obtained from a user's terminal. 3. The cost estimation system for industrial property rights according to claim 1 or 2, wherein said share ratio is registered in said case database. the case database includes group identification information that can identify a group to which the industrial property right belongs;
3. The system for estimating costs for industrial property rights according to claim 1, wherein said estimated claim amount for said industrial property rights belonging to said specific group can be calculated based on said case database. The system includes:
Get the extraction conditions,
specifying, from among all the projects registered in the project database, those satisfying the extraction conditions as the industrial property rights to be estimated;
2. The cost estimation system for an industrial property according to claim 1 , wherein the cost estimate system for the industrial property right according to claim 1 is configured to calculate the estimated billing amount for each year for the industrial property right to be estimated. The system includes:
Get the extraction conditions,
specifying, from among all the projects registered in the project database, those satisfying the extraction conditions as the industrial property rights to be estimated;
3. The cost estimation system for an industrial property according to claim 2, wherein the estimated monthly billing amount is calculated for the estimated amount of the industrial property. a project database containing identification information capable of identifying a specific industrial property right, filing date, filing country, type of right, and bibliographic items required to calculate costs related to the industrial property right;
a legal database in which all types of procedures from application to maintenance of rights and standard time schedules for each of the procedures or claims thereof are recorded for each type of industrial property right;
a cost database in which the agency fees and attorney fees required for each of the procedures are recorded;
a processor; non-transitory recording means for recording computer readable instructions executed by said processor;
a method of estimating future costs associated with all said proceedings from application to maintenance for one or more said industrial property rights using:
identifying the proceedings that will occur in the future for each of the industrial property rights as scheduled proceedings based on the case database and the legal database;
calculating a scheduled billing amount and a scheduled billing date in the scheduled procedure based on the case database, the legal database, and the cost database;
Based on the scheduled billing amount and the scheduled billing date of all the industrial property rights, the scheduled billing amount that belongs to the same scheduled billing date is summed up to calculate the annual scheduled billing amount generated for each fiscal year. is composed of
When calculating the annual scheduled billing amount, for the industrial property rights for which a sharing ratio has been set, the annual billing amount is calculated by using the sharing amount obtained by multiplying the billing amount by the sharing ratio. A method for estimating the cost of industrial property rights. a project database containing identification information capable of identifying a specific industrial property right, filing date, filing country, type of right, and bibliographic items required to calculate costs related to the industrial property right;
a legal database in which all types of procedures from application to maintenance of rights and standard time schedules for each of the procedures or claims thereof are recorded for each type of industrial property right;
a cost database in which the agency fees and attorney fees required for each of the procedures are recorded;
a processor; non-transitory recording means for recording computer readable instructions executed by said processor;
a method of estimating future costs associated with all said proceedings from application to maintenance for one or more said industrial property rights using:
identifying the proceedings that will occur in the future for each of the industrial property rights as scheduled proceedings based on the case database and the legal database;
calculating a scheduled billing amount and a scheduled billing date in the scheduled procedure based on the case database, the legal database, and the cost database;
Based on the scheduled billing amount and the scheduled billing date for all the industrial property rights, calculate the monthly scheduled billing amount generated on a monthly basis by summing the scheduled billing amounts belonging to the same year and same month as the scheduled billing date. is configured to allow
When calculating the scheduled monthly billing amount, for the industrial property rights for which the sharing ratio is set, the scheduled monthly billing amount is calculated by using the sharing amount obtained by multiplying the scheduled billing amount by the sharing ratio. A method for estimating the cost of an industrial property right, adapted to calculate the cost.

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