在專利發明人的掛名上，誰是發明人，美國法院有很明確的操作標準與案例。其強調必須對發明之構思（conception）具有重要貢獻（contribution is significant），若貢獻不重要（insignificant），就不足以成為共同發明人。
出於此一興趣，筆者想研究介紹一系列重要的美國判決，看他們如何認定誰才是專利的發明人。以下，先介紹一則2006年聯邦巡迴上訴法院的Stern v Trustees of Columbia University in City of New York案。美國法院多次表達，要作為發明的共同發明人，必須對發明之請求項的構思有所貢獻。而該案的重點在於，若只是執行實驗或指示，對發明的構思沒有貢獻，其執行實驗的「貢獻」太小，不足以成為共同發明人。
大學教授與執行實驗的助理
哥倫比亞大學是美國專利號第4,599,353號（簡稱'353號專利）之專利權人，該專利乃是適用前列腺素（prostaglandins）治療青光眼（glaucoma）。Lazlo Z. Bito是哥倫比亞大學的教授，被列名為'353號專利的發明人。
1980年時，Frederic A. Stern是哥大的醫學系學生，他主動選擇到Bito教授的實驗室，上一學期的眼科學研究選修課。Bito教授同意，並指導Stern同學先閱讀Bito教授關於前列腺素與眼內壓（intraocular pressure）的論文。當時，Bito教授已經發表了幾篇關於前列腺素對不同動物的眼內壓的影響，主要包括兔子、貓頭鷹猴，且在文章中指出，未來要繼續研究前列腺素對眼內壓的影響，恆河猴是好的研究對象。
Wang Mei-hua Answers to Criticism of Taiwan's New Southbound Policy
Conor Stuart／IP Observer Report
Figure 1: Vice minister of economic affairs Wang Mei-hua (left) and secretary general of the Chinese National Federation of Industries Tsai Lien-sheng
Photo by Conor Stuart
There have been a series of media reports over recent months questioning the Taiwanese government's role in pushing forward a policy to encourage stronger business, trade and educational links with South East Asia, South Asia, Australia and New Zealand -- "the New Southbound Policy".
One such critique, penned by Joe Tsai, a columnist for our Chinese-language sister newsletter stated his concerns as follows:
"Contrary to Donald Trump's efforts to encourage businesses to come back to the US, the Taiwanese government is calling for businesses to move overseas, this is not what the Taiwanese government should be doing. Whether it is moving westward into China, northward toward Japan, southward into South East Asia or eastward towards the US, there is always room for pursuing profit on the free market, and keen-eyed business people will know how to do it, and don't need the government to spell it out for them or point the way. If there is a business opportunity, businesses will invest there; in a free democratic country, the government couldn't stop them even if they wanted to [...] It's not hard to see, that the Southbound Policy, aimed at South East Asia, is an attempt by the new government to replace the westbound movement into China. It's an ideological trade-off of a policy, but whether it is aimed at China, Japan, South East Asia or the US, the government should not be leading through policy. The government's function is to build a solid investment environment and to raise the competitiveness of Taiwanese businesses; it doesn't need to encourage businesses to move abroad."
A junior executive at a Taiwanese-owned textile manufacturing company with three factories in Cambodia and Vietnam drew attention to other issues, stating to the IP Observer that the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has yet to take any substantive action with regards to the policy and that the high price of labor means that their factories in the countries have not been as profitable as those elsewhere. Added to this are tariff and non-tariff barriers set to remain in place given the failure of the TPP to get off the ground. This means that worker salaries are higher than in other places and that it is more expensive for Taiwanese companies to export products than it is when they work in eligible southern African countries which enjoy duty-free apparel and textile exports to the United States under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) program.
At a forum on the New Southbound Policy on January 18th both Tsai Lien-sheng, the secretary-general of the Chinese National Federation of Industries (CNFI) and vice minister of economic affairs Wang Mei-hua, pushed back on criticism. In answer to suggestions of an ideological "anti-China" agenda to the policy, Tsai stated "When pushing forward the New Southbound Policy, we can't ignore the importance of China to ASEAN countries. Just because we're pushing forward the New Southbound policy, doesn't mean that we should give up on the Chinese market. I visited China after [Tsai Ing-wen's inauguration on] May 20th of 2016 and they asked if the New Southbound policy was aimed at distancing ourselves from Mainland China. And we replied that it wasn’t."
He also stated his hope that there would be opportunities to continue to cooperate with China in trilateral trade relations with other countries, given the latter’s Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st-century Maritime Silk Road initiatives hinge on cooperation with many of the same countries involved in the New Southbound Policy.【unfinished; for further reading: IP Observer 010: Wang Mei-hua Answers to Criticism of Taiwan's New Southbound Policy】
Keep Abreast of R&D Developments with Patent Watch Services
NAIP E-Commerce Business Group
Patent data plays a decisive role in decisions about company products, R&D and market operations at each stage of your company’s development. After collation, classification and analysis, patent data can help R&D departments within companies in planning their product strategies; it can also help the management team set its sights on specific target markets. The insights provided by comprehensive patent data, will keep you in the loop on the development of core technology and are the key to survival.
The Importance of Patent Data
Patents serve as a useful tool for businesses, regardless of operational model, whether you want help as the dominant player in a market or just want to earn licensing revenue. Insights into the patent deployment of different market players offer you the possibility of avoiding patent litigation, thereby controlling exposure to risk. A clear understanding of each company’s patents in specific industries also allows you to make careful calculations as to how much leverage one has in cross-licensing negotiations. For example, from the high-volume deployment of augmented reality (AR) patents shown in Figure 1, one can see how three competitors (Magic Leap, Microsoft and Samsung) have deployed patents to different AR subsectors. In the spirit of "know thyself know thy enemy", knowing where a company stands in terms of the technology market, informs both your defensive and offensive strategy and gives you a solid foothold in your industry.
As a sales or operations executive, being up-to-the-minute on where you and your competitors stand in terms of core technology and patents is quite important; as the manager of an R&D department, this knowledge is key in making decisions on researching new patents in a particular field, discovering which patents could be the subject of litigation and which have a high R&D value. All of this is worth investing the time to keep tabs on.
Figure 1: Activity Index for Augmented Reality (AR) Patents
Source: Alex G. Lee, Ph.D. J.D. CLP; 2/16/2016
As big data has become increasingly mainstream in the analytics field, the issue of how one can extract useful information has become a hot topic, given that the sampling and interpretation of data has to be done to the same standards to get any real meaning out of data.【unfinished; for further reading: IP Observer 010: Keep Abreast of R&D Developments with Patent Watch Services】
