專利授權產業之競爭策略之研究- 以M公司為例

Abstract

高科技產業近年來在不論在整體產值、產業規模及國際能見度均日益擴大，惟對於專利權保障並不充分，產品侵害合法專利之案件，亦屢見不鲜，故合法專利權人如何維護其專利權，並藉此創造專利權的合法效益，乃是專利法律制度正當性及存續的重要課題之ㄧ。 為維護專利權人合法專利權並創造專利的合法效益，專利授權公司，或譯為非專利實施的實體(Patent Non-Practicing Entities，NPEs)，乃因應而生。專利授權公司主要的營利模式，乃藉由專利的取得、或與專利權人合作，透過授權談判或專利訴訟的方式，向侵害其專利權的公司收取權利金或賠償。亦即專利授權公司通常並不進行產品生產、製造或銷售，單純地透過授權談判或專利訴訟的方式，行使其專利權利。 根據統計，自1985年以來，截至2010年1月，在美國專利市場活動的專利授權公司已超過380家。這些專利授權公司對侵害(或疑似侵害)其專利的公司所主張的專利侵權案件超過4000件，而從1990年到2010年止，因專利授權公司所提起的專利訴訟，已回收了超過5000億美金的權利金及損害賠償。 本研究即是嘗試利用SWOT競爭分析方法，來發現個案M專利授權公司的競爭優勢，以期將結果提供給該公司的決策高層作為參考。

High technology industries have been prospered in their overall output value created, significant business scale increased and international visibility enhanced. However, the protection of patent rights seems not well appreciated. Cases involving patent infringement disputes occur from time to time. Therefore, how to protect patent rights thereby generating legitimate rewards to patent owners become crucial in legitimizing and sustaining legal system of patent laws. Patent licensing companies, a.k.a. Non-Practicing Entities (NPEs), are initially created for helping individual patent owners, who lack of resource, in pursuing their legitimate rights under the patent laws. They normally do not produce, manufacture or sell products, but, by way of acquiring patents or collaborating with patent owners, they initiate series of patent licensing negotiation and patent infringement litigations to assert their patent rights against patent infringers. Namely, NPEs do not engage in production, manufacturing or sales of products. They typically collect royalties and compensations through patent licensing programs and patent infringement litigations. Studies show that the quantities of identifiable NPEs, who mainly engaged in patent licensing activities in the US patent market during the period of 1985 to 2011, have been more than 380. They initiated more than 4,000 patent licensing programs and/ or patent infringement lawsuits. They have successfully collected more than 500 billion USD royalties and compensations from the patent infringers in return. This study applies method of SWOT competitive advantage analysis and aims to find major competitive advantages of M company, and, hopefully, would offer references to M company’s management team when making their respective business judgments.