WO2007061231A1

WO2007061231A1 - Intellectual property management system of dividing invention

Info

Publication number: WO2007061231A1
Application number: PCT/KR2006/004943
Authority: WO
Inventors: Ulho Lee; Kyounggu Lee
Original assignee: Fospat Incorporated
Priority date: 2005-11-25
Filing date: 2006-11-23
Publication date: 2007-05-31
Also published as: KR20070055287A

Abstract

Provided is an intellectual property management system that divides one invention before an application for patent is made or prosecutes one invention into two or more application including a division application after an application for patent is made to manage the applications in a database. A processing unit divides one invention into at least two inventions based on invention information stored in the data storage unit and a division request signal from a system user. The changed information is stored as a table in the data storage unit. The processing unit provides the division-related screen to the user terminal so that the user easily selects an invention to be divided and determines whether to divide the invention on the displayed screen.

Description

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM OF

DIVIDING INVENTION

Technical Field

[1] The present invention relates to an intellectual property management system, and more particularly, to an intellectual property management system capable of dividing two or more inventions timely before or after application for patent. Background Art

[2] Enterprises require a system for managing patents or inventions according to application numbers or invention suggestion numbers for patent applications and maintenance of registered patents. In particular, most inventions which are applied and managed by enterprises are employee inventions, which cause issues of proper reward, right share between inventors, ownership of rights, etc.

[3] One invention may be divided into two or more inventions before or after application for patent, or a domestic priority claiming application may be made based on the invention. When an overseas application and particularly a U.S. continuation application, U.S. divisional application or U.S. continuation-in-part application are made based on an domestic application for patent, issues of a right share between inventors and a selection of a primary inventor from inventors remain unsolved, and every enterprise tries to solve such issues based on their own criteria.

[4] In the case where an employee invention which is received in a certain format and ready for an application for patent, or an employee invention for which an application for patent has been already made is retrieved and divided by an intellectual property management system, a division history must be continuously managed after such an invention is divided. However, when one invention is divided or developed into a continuation application, an original application is commonly deleted and an application history thereof is lost. Accordingly, entire division history management and proper employee invention management are impossible when right share between co- inventors is re-adjusted or changed by consent after application for patent.

[5] Furthermore, an intellectual property management system for receiving employee inventions from employees and managing them does not include an invention dividing module at all. Accordingly, there is a need for an intellectual property management system capable of dividing an invention before or after application for patent and easily addressing several issues associated with inventors. Disclosure of Invention Technical Problem [6] It is an object of the present invention to provide an intellectual property management system capable of managing divided inventions on a data storage unit. Technical Solution

[7] A first aspect of the present invention provides an intellectual property management system comprising: a data storage unit for storing information for dividing one invention into at least two application inventions; a processing unit for dividing the invention into the at least two application inventions based on the information for dividing one invention from at least two application inventions; and a user terminal for receiving a screen relating to division information from the processing unit and displaying it so that a user can divide the invention into the at least two application inventions.

[8] A second aspect of the present invention provides an intellectual property management system comprising: a data storage unit for storing invention-related information; a user terminal for displaying the invention-related information; and a processing unit for controlling the information stored in the data storage unit and sending the invention-related information to the user terminal, wherein the invention- related information is used for dividing one invention into two applications.

[9] In the detailed description, divisional applications, domestic priority claiming applications, U.S. continuation applications, U.S. divisional applications, U.S. con- tinuation-in-part applications or the like refer to at least two applications divided from one original invention before or after application for patent. Although all applications divided from an original application are defined as divisional applications for convenience of illustration, a meaning of the divisional application is not limited thereto.

Advantageous Effects

[10] As described above, the present invention allows at least one invention to be divided into two or more inventions based on information organized in database. The present invention also allows a user to easily divide one invention into inventions on the displayed screen. Information changed or newly created before or after the invention is divided is stored as a table in the data storage unit. Thus, the system allows the user to divide an invention and inquire information relating to the divided invention.

Brief Description of the Drawings

[11] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an intellectual property management system for managing divided inventions in an integrated way according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

[12] FIG. 2 illustrates an invention details inquiry screen displayed on a user terminal of FIG. 1 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

[13] FIG. 3 illustrates an invention division management screen according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

[14] FIG. 4 illustrates a table in an invention history management data storage unit according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

[15] FIG. 5 illustrates a table in an inventor management data storage unit according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention; and

[16] FIG. 6 illustrates a table in a division history management data storage unit according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. Mode for the Invention

[17] Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[18] Exemplary Embodiment

[19] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an intellectual property management system for managing divided inventions in an integrated way according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

[20] Referring to FIG. 1, the intellectual property management system according to the present exemplary embodiment comprises a data storage unit 100 and a processing unit 200. The system may further comprise a user terminal 300 for allowing a user to access the intellectual property management system of the present invention.

[21] The data storage unit 100 includes an invention history management data storage unit 110, an inventor management data storage unit 120, and a division history management data storage unit 130.

[22] The invention history management data storage unit 110 stores information on inventions before or after domestic or overseas application for patent. That is, the invention history management data storage unit 110 is used for performing application, intermediate prosecution, right registration and maintenance, application termination (e.g., abandonment or withdrawal), maintenance-fee management, etc. that may occur between first report/receipt of employee inventions from inventors and a step for registration maintenance.

[23] The inventor management data storage unit 120 conserves information on inventors of the inventions that are managed by the invention history management data storage unit 110. The division history management data storage unit 130 stores correlations between divided cases stored in the invention history management data storage unit 110.

[24] The invention history management data storage unit 110 may include a domestic management data storage unit (not shown) and an overseas management data storage unit (not shown). Alternatively, the invention history management data storage unit 110 may include one data storage unit for storing country information. In the data storage unit 100, the invention history management data storage unit 110, the inventor management data storage unit 120, and the division history management data storage unit 130 may include a data storage unit for storing correlations between data in the units for enhancement of system performance and convenience of users.

[25] The invention history management data storage unit 110 includes information on a suggestion number for identifying inventions, an application country, a country order, and the like. The invention history management data storage unit 110 may further include application classification information for specifying a type of invention division, such as divisional application, domestic priority claiming application, U.S. continuation application, U.S. continuation-in-part application, and the like.

[26] The division history management data storage unit 130 is based upon the data in the invention history management data storage unit 110 and includes division information of inventions with division history.

[27] The inventor management data storage unit 120 stores personnel information of post-division inventors and ante-division inventors. When the inventors personnel information is changed by application division, the changed information is stored as inventor information of a divided invention in the inventor management data storage unit 120. When the divisional application is a domestic priority claiming application containing a content of an invention from additional inventors other than original inventors, information on the additional inventors is stored in the inventor management data storage unit 120. Since some of the inventors may become inventors of divisional applications by a divisional application after application for patent, information on such inventors of divisional applications is also stored in the inventor management data storage unit 120. In this manner, because respective inventor information corresponding to the original invention information and the divided invention information, which are managed by the invention history management data storage unit 110, is stored in the inventor management data storage unit 120, the inventor information for the original invention is not deleted or corrected for management and inquiry of inventor information for divided inventions.

[28] In the case where the invention history management data storage unit 110 includes the domestic management data storage unit and the overseas management data storage unit, the inventor management data storage unit 120 may include a domestic inventor management data storage unit and an overseas inventor management data storage unit.

[29] The processing unit 200 includes a data retrieving unit 210 and a division creating unit 220. The user makes an inquiry request for information on an original invention to be divided by means of the user terminal 300. In response to the inquiry request signal, the data retrieving unit 210 retrieves the requested information from the invention history management data storage unit 110 and the like in the data storage unit 100 and displays it on a screen of the user terminal 300. That is, the data retrieved by the data retrieving unit 210 is sent to the user terminal 300, and the user inputs division-related information containing information on whether to divide an invention using the user terminal 300.

[30] The division creating unit 220 changes a division-related table or creates a new division-related table based on the retrieved information from the data retrieving unit 210 and the division-related information input via the user terminal 300. The changed or newly generated table is sent to and stored in the data storage unit 100.

[31] FIG. 2 illustrates an invention details inquiry screen displayed on a user terminal of

FIG. 1 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

[32] Referring to FIG. 2, the invention details inquiry screen provides information for identifying inventions to a user. In detail, the invention details inquiry screen provides a unique suggestion number assigned by an enterprise, specification information, inventors personnel information, and the like related to an employee invention to the user, and displays information on a basic invention to be divided.

[33] Preferably, the invention details inquiry screen includes a case selection section

310, a case information section 320, and an inventor information section 330. The invention details inquiry screen may further include a registration and abandonment information section 340 and an intermediate-case response section 350.

[34] The case selection section 310 is used for calling a case to be inquired on the invention details inquiry screen from the data storage unit 100. The case selection section 310 includes an input box for inputting a suggestion number, an application number, a publication number, a registration number, and the like that define a post- and ante- application invention. The information on the input and inquiry-requested case is displayed on the invention details inquiry screen.

[35] The case information section 320 displays information on the case selected by the case selection section 310. Specifically, the case information section 320 displays a suggested title indicating a title of an invention, a suggestion number assigned to each invention by an enterprise, an application number, an overseas docket number managed in an enterprise, merging, a request for examination, a dual application, an earlier publication application, etc.

[36] The case information section 320 includes functional buttons for inquiring/ modifying information containing merging management, division/continuation, priority information, etc. When the user clicks on the division/continuation button, the screen (see FIG. 3) appears by which the user can divide an invention and input division-related information. [37] The inventor information section 330 displays details of inventors. In detail, the inventor information section 330 displays personnel matters of primary inventors, application reward, and the like. On the inventor information section 330, the details such as the personnel matters may be modified or deleted, and new inventors may be added or existing inventors may be deleted.

[38] The registration and abandonment information section 340 displays abandonment and withdrawal-related information when an application is abandoned or withdrawn, and displays information on patent allowance when a domestic notice of allowance is issued. In particular, the registration and abandonment information section 340 displays information on patent allowance even when an invention is patented (e.g., a U.S. notice of allowance is issued).

[39] The intermediate-case response section 350 displays information on intermediate cases such as a notice of reasons for rejection issued by a patent office, a receipt date, and an attorney s response.

[40] FIG. 3 illustrates a division management screen according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

[41] Referring to FIG. 3, when a user clicks the division/continuation button on the invention details inquiry screen of FIG. 2, the division management screen appears which permits divided inventions to be created from the invention inquired in FIG. 2. As illustrated in FIG. 3, the screen may also display division information of the invention that is being inquired in FIG. 2 or information on division into other inventions. In FIG. 3, when one invention is divided, the screen allows application classification to be input for the divisional application and application information to be input for an invention for which an application is made.

[42] FIGS. 4 and 6 illustrate tables of the data storage unit when the division is performed on the division management screen of FIG. 3 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

[43] When the user inputs information on division of an original application on the division management screen, the data storage unit sends information on cases selected based on the division information to the processing unit, and the processing unit generates or modifies the data in the data storage unit using the original application information in the data storage unit and the division information input by the user.

[44] FIG. 4 illustrates a table in the invention history data storage unit when a division application or a domestic priority claiming application is made.

[45] Referring to FIG. 4, the table stores a suggestion number A of a domestic application invention, a country order indicating an order of a division application or a domestic priority claiming application, an application classification indicating an original application/divisional application, etc. [46] A state is shown in which after a domestic application is basically made for one invention having suggestion number A, a divisional application, a further divisional application, and a domestic priority claiming application are made sequentially. In particular, in the case of the domestic priority claiming application, an original application is considered as being withdrawn when one year elapses from the application date of the original application. Accordingly, a prosecution for the domestic original application case is terminated. In this case, the table may store information on reason for the termination. The table may also store information such as an application date of the division application or domestic priority claiming application.

[47] When an invention is divided by the processing unit of FIG. 1, an application having suggestion number A is divided into multiple applications. That is, the multiple applications correspond to one suggestion number.

[48] FIG. 5 illustrates a table in the data storage unit for managing information on ante- divison or post-division inventors.

[49] Referring to FIG. 5, one invention may include a number of inventors.

[50] For one invention s suggestion A, inventor information is classified depending on an inventor serial number. If one invention is divided by the processing unit shown in FIG. 1, the suggestion number of a divisional invention is A and the country order thereof has an incremented value. When there is no inventor addition or deletion, divisional applications are written with serial inventor numbers of 1 and 2 and country orders having a different value from the original invention, as shown in FIG. 5.

[51] Even when inventors of the original invention do not match inventors of the divisional invention, separate history management is possible since respective inventor information is present.

[52] FIG. 6 illustrates a table in the data storage unit for managing a division history that is created after an invention is divided.

[53] Referring to FIG. 6, one invention becomes a division application or a domestic priority claiming application up to three times, as shown in FIG. 4.

[54] Specifically, an original invention having suggestion number A is divided, and the original application and the resulting divisional application are assigned country orders 1 and 2, respectively. In this case, unique classification numbers are assigned for distinguishing the applications from other division or domestic priority claiming applications. Parent and child classification is made for indicating a parent application and a child application.

[55] Subsequently, the original application having the same suggestion number A is further divided, the second divisional application is assigned a new classification number and becomes a child application. In FIG. 5, the first divisional application is additionally divided. The divisional application having a country order of 2 becomes a parent application and the second divisional application becomes a child application having a country order of 3.

[56] Finally, when a domestic priority claiming application is made based on the application having a country order of 1, it is assigned a country order of 4.

[57] When a request for a division or domestic priority claiming application for the invention selected on the screen of FIGS. 2 and 3 is input, the processing unit divides the invention and the division-related information is stored in the tables of the data storage unit.

[58] The creation and change of the table relating to a division application will be described with reference to FIGS. 4 and 6.

[59] Referring to the table (see FIG. 4) in the invention history management data storage unit 110, when a divisional application is made based on an original invention (suggestion number: A, country: KR, country order: 1, and application classification: original application), information on a division application (suggestion number: A, country: KR, country order: 2, and application classification: divisional application) is created in the table of the invention history management data storage unit 110 by the division creating unit 220, and inventor information corresponding to the division application (suggestion number: A, country: KR, and country order: 2) is created in the table (see FIG. 5) of the inventor management data storage unit 120. The information may be added or deleted individually. In addition, information on a correlation between the original application (suggestion number: A, country: KR, and country order: 1) and the divisional application (suggestion number: A, country: KR, and country order: 2) is created in the table (see FIG. 6) of the division history management data storage unit 130.

[60] Even when a division or continuation application is made based on any overseas application, tables are created, similar to FIGS. 4 and 6. However, a symbol indicating a country other than Korea having "KR" is written to the country column. For example, the country column includes one of "US" indicating United States of America, "CN" indicating China, and "JP" indicating Japan. Industrial Applicability

[61] Thus, the present invention allows one invention to be easily divided into two or more inventions before or after an application for patent is made, in which the applications are efficiently managed on the data storage unit.

[62] While the present invention has been described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in from and detail may be made therein without departing from the scope of the present invention as defined by the following claims.

Claims

[1] An intellectual property management system comprising: a data storage unit for storing information on a first application invention; and a processing unit for receiving the first application invention information and processing information on a second application invention that is a division or continuation application of the first invention, the second application invention information received from the processing unit being stored in the data storage unit.

[2] The intellectual property management system according to Claim 1, wherein the data storage unit stores unique numbers of the first and second application inventions and orders for managing invention division information, the unique number of the first application invention is the same as that of the second application invention, and the order of the first application invention is different from that of the second application invention.

[3] The intellectual property management system according to Claim 2, wherein the data storage unit comprises: an invention history management data storage unit for managing the information on the first and second application inventions; an inventor management data storage unit for managing inventor information of the first and second application inventions; and a division history management data storage unit for managing division-related information of the first and second application inventions.

[4] The intellectual property management system according to Claim 3, wherein the inventor management data storage unit stores inventor orders of the first and second application inventions.

[5] The intellectual property management system according to Claim 3, wherein the data storage unit comprises: an overseas application table for storing data for identifying inventions and storing data related to an overseas application; and an overseas division/continuation application table for storing information on a number of applications created by a divisional application or a continuation application based on the data in the overseas application table.

[6] The intellectual property management system according to Claim 5, wherein the data storage unit further comprises an inventor table for storing inventor information changed by a divisional application or a continuation-in-part application.

[7] The intellectual property management system according to Claim 1, wherein the processing unit comprises: a data retrieving unit for retrieving information requested for dividing one invention into two applications from the data storage unit upon receipt of a division/continuation application request signal from the user terminal; and a division/continuation application creating unit for creating a division-related table based on the retrieved information from the data retrieving unit and division-related information input by the user through a terminal.

[8] The intellectual property management system according to Claim 7, wherein the division/continuation application creating unit creates information on a divisional application or a domestic priority claiming application for a domestic application.

[9] The intellectual property management system according to Claim 7, wherein the division/continuation application creating unit creates information on a divisional application, a continuation application or continuation-in-part application for a U.S. application.

[10] The intellectual property management system according to Claim 7, wherein the information provided to the user terminal by the data retrieving unit is delivered on a division inquiry screen for displaying information required for dividing one invention into two or more applications, and a screen for domestic division or overseas division is displayed by a merging inquiry screen.

[11] An intellectual property management system comprising: a data storage unit for storing invention-related information; a user terminal for displaying the invention-related information; and a processing unit for controlling the information stored in the data storage unit and sending the invention-related information to the user terminal, the invention- related information being used for dividing one invention into two applications.

[12] The intellectual property management system according to Claim 11, wherein the data storage unit comprises: a domestic management data storage unit for storing information on inventions related to a domestic application before or after an application for patent is made; and an overseas management data storage unit for storing information related to an overseas application of an invention before or after an overseas application for patent is made.

[13] The intellectual property management system according to Claim 12, wherein the domestic management data storage unit comprises: a domestic application table for storing information for identifying inventions; and a domestic division table for storing division information formed based on the data in the domestic application table.

[14] The intellectual property management system according to Claim 13, wherein the domestic management data storage unit further comprises an inventor table for storing personnel information of ante-division or post-division inventors or ante- domestic or post-domestic priority claiming application inventors.

[15] The intellectual property management system according to Claim 12, wherein the overseas management data storage unit comprises: an overseas application table for storing data for identifying inventions and storing data related to an overseas application; and an overseas division/continuation application table for storing information on a number of applications created by a divisional application or a continuation application based on the data in the overseas application table.

[16] The intellectual property management system according to Claim 15, wherein the overseas management data storage unit further comprises an inventor table for storing inventor information changed by a divisional application or a con- tinuation-in-part application.

[17] The intellectual property management system according to Claim 11, wherein the processing unit comprises: a data retrieving unit for retrieving information requested for dividing one invention into two applications from the data storage unit upon receipt of a division/continuation application request signal from the user terminal; and a division/continuation application creating unit for creating a division-related table based on the retrieved information from the data retrieving unit and division-related information input by the user through a terminal.

[18] The intellectual property management system according to Claim 17, wherein the division/continuation application creating unit creates information on a divisional application or a domestic priority claiming application for a domestic application.

[19] The intellectual property management system according to Claim 18, wherein the division/continuation application creating unit creates information on a divisional application, a continuation application or continuation-in-part application for a U.S. application.

[20] The intellectual property management system according to Claim 11, wherein the information provided to the user terminal by the data retrieving unit is delivered on a division inquiry screen for displaying information required for dividing one invention into two or more applications, and a screen for domestic division or overseas division is displayed by a merging inquiry screen.