Visualization and patent mapping are important tools that companies are using to evaluate the strategic strength of their patent portfolios and identify areas for growth and innovation.
Bill Chambers, vice president of North American Sales for Thomson Reuters IP Solutions, spoke about patent visualization – among several IP-related topics – at a AALL vendor panel on Sunday, July 26. He recaps some of the key points here:
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Joff Wild of IAM Magazine reports in his blog that during IP Business Congress 2009, Ian Harvey, UK Intellectual Property Institute chairman, observed that a recent Chinese government delegation to the UK came in the hope of getting comments from British businesses about proposed amendments to the Chinese Patent Act (due to come into force October 1 2009). The delegation received no feedback, which indicates either a complete lack of awareness or complete disinterest in changes due to hit 3 months from today.
It struck me that despite the availability of much comment about the proposed amendments, I hadn’t seen the actual text of the amendments anywhere. No wonder – it appears to be copyright-protected material and available only on payment of a subscription at the Lawinfochina.com website .
While limiting availability of the text through a single channel may be sufficient to deter casual enquirers, those companies that have business in China and are subject to IP considerations should really act now (if it’s not already too late) to obtain the original text of the proposed amendments and begin to assess and plan for the potential impact on their future business in that country.