为什么专利能壮大企业 Why Patents Boost Your Business?

知识产权是保护创意和品牌价值的无形资产。作为一种知识产权，专利用于保护新产品和新工艺。然而，企业将专利作为一种保护手段并不普遍，主要是因为他们没简单地意识到专利中被较少推广的隐藏好处。
Intellectual property rights (IPR) are intangible assets which protect ideas and brand value. Patents is a kind of IPRs and are used to protect new products and processes. Patents as protection are not common as many businesses are simply not aware of the less obvious benefits of patents, which are not always well-advertised.
专利给你的企业带来以下十种好处。
There are ten ways that patents can help your business.
1. 保护研发投资 Protecting R&D Investment
专利可以防止竞争对手抄袭你的创新。如果你拥有一项发明专利，你可在研发上投入的时间和金钱中充分受益，并禁止第三方的使用。
Patents prevent competitors from copying your innovations. If you have a patent granted for an invention, third parties will be unable to exploit it and freely benefit from the time and money you have invested in research and development.
2. 获得排他权 Securing Exclusivity
专利可以阻止竞争者使用你的发明，让你建立主导的市场地位和品牌声誉。
Patents stop competitors from exploiting your invention and it can allow you to establish a dominant market position and brand reputation.
以临时禁令阻止侵权人。不一定要到第三方开始销售侵权产品才开始维权——在某些情况下，法院可以签发临时性禁令，先发制人地阻止潜在侵权人进入市场。
Interim injunction available to stop an infringer. It isn't always necessary to wait until a third party starts marketing an infringing product before enforcing your patent right – in some cases the courts can grant an interim injunction to pre-emptively stop a potential infringer from entering the market to begin with.
即使不采取法律行动，仅仅拥有一项专利也可以起到威慑作用。
因为诉讼的几率就可能足以使谨慎的竞争对手望而却步（如果你希望第三方知道你的专利，就必须小心，不要做出毫无根据的威胁）。
Merely having a patent can also act as a deterrent even without legal action, as the possibility of litigation might be enough to put off more cautious competitors (although care must be taken not to make groundless threats if you wish to make third parties aware of your patent).
3. 创立名声 Creating Reputation
通过强大的专利组合，可以展示出你高水准创新、专业知识和技术能力。由此产生的好名声极大可能吸引到客户和投资者。
With a strong patent portfolio, you can demonstrate a high level of innovation, expertise and technological capability. The positive reputation that results from this may be valuable in attracting customers as well as investors.
4. 吸引投资者 Attracting Investors
专利除了展示出高水准的创新外，还能吸引到投资者。这是因为通过一个确保不会被山寨的成功产品带来的收入，可以更确定投资者的投入是有回报的。专利的独占期限（20年）为任何投资的收回提供了充足的时间。
Other than demonstrating a high level of innovation, patents are also attractive to investors because they provide more certainty of a return on their outlay, by ensuring that revenue from a successful product won't be lost to copycats. The long period of exclusivity granted by a patent (20 years) affords ample time for any investment to be recouped.
5. 提高被收购的可能 Improving Acquisition Offers
如果你处于一个发展停滞阶段并希望出售公司或与大企业合并时，完备的知识产权会使你的公司更具商业价值，从而吸引潜在的买家。
If you are in a position not to take our business forward and wish to sell the company to or merge with a larger organisation. Strong IPRs can make your business more valuable and therefore more commercially attractive to potential buyers, for the reasons given above.
与公司的实物财产不同，专利是不可复制的独特财产。因此在某些情况下，相比起公司本身，买家可能对获得知识产权组合更有兴趣。
Unlike the physical property of a company, patents are unique assets which cannot be replicated, so in some cases buyers may be more interested in acquiring an IPR portfolio than a company per se.
6.增加首次公开发行前的价值 Increasing Pre-IPO Value
公司可能已经发展到在股市发行股票的阶段，但知识产权可以对公司的整体估值做出重大贡献，能够增加首次公开发行期间可筹集的资金额。创新和公司的价值之间存在紧密的相关性，稳固的专利组合能为你公司的创新提供有力的证明。
You may grow to the point of offering shares on the stock market but IPR assets can make a significant contribution to the overall financial value of a company, increasing the amount of money that can be raised during an initial public offering. There is a strong correlation between innovation and company value, and a solid patent portfolio provides good evidence of your business innovation.
7. 优化合资企业 Enhancing JV
你可与合作伙伴共享专业知识和资源，使公司能够通过使用彼此的技术来共同开发新进程。专利可以作为成立合资企业和研发合作协议的法律框架，以明确界定共享的标准。在没有专利保护的情况下，规模大的合作伙伴从规模小的创新企业获取技术，再另行开发，而创新企业即使是最初发明者，也会得不到应有的报酬或补偿。
You may share expertise and resources with a partner who can enable your companies to co-develop new advancements by using each other's technologies. Patents can act as a legal scaffolding around which joint ventures and R&D partnership contracts are constructed, to clearly define what is being shared and what is not. Without patent protection, larger partners could take advantage of a smaller innovator by taking the technology and developing it on their own, with the original inventors losing out on any rewards or compensation.
8. 知识产权许可 Licensing IPRs
你可以允许第三方使用你的发明以获使用费。如果你的企业没有足够的资金或设备来生产或销售你自己的产品，而同时又能从发明中取得商业利益，那么专利许可对企业来说是非常获利的。在国际市场上授权许可也有益处，以此获取当地分销商的所知所见。
You may grant permission for a third party to use your invention in return for royalties. Licensing can be great for your business who don't have the money or facilities to manufacture or market a product in your own, while still retaining commercial benefit from the invention. Licensing can also be useful in international markets to take advantage of the knowledge of local distributors.
在某些情况下，可能与对竞争对手进行专利交叉许可谈判。在两家不同公司持有的专利范围重合的情况下，交叉许可显得尤其重要，任何一家公司都不能在没有对方许可的情况下自由使用专利。
In some cases, it may be possible to negotiate cross-licences for patents owned by competitors. This is particularly important in cases where patents held by two different companies have overlapping scope, and so neither company has freedom to operate without a licence from the other.
9. 获得税收减免 Obtaining Tax Relief
在中国，如果你的公司被认证为高科技公司，根据拥有的专利数量，只需支付15%的所得税，而不是25%。英国政府实施了一项专利发明税收减免计划，称为“专利盒”(Patent Box)，从一项专利发明中直接获得的收入可以享受较低的税率。在美国，也有类似的税收优惠或免税期。这为大规模销售专利产品的企业节省大量资金，从而抵消获得专利的成本。
In China, if your corporation qualifies as a “Hi Tech” company, depending on the number of patents you have, you pay only 15% of profit tax, compared with 25%. For instance, in the UK government operates a tax relief program for patented inventions, called Patent Box, where a lower rate of tax is available for revenue generated directly from a patented invention. In the US, there are similar tax concessions or holidays. This can provide significant savings for businesses selling patented products in high volumes, which can more than offset the cost of obtaining the patent.
10. 防御攻击 Defending Against Attacks
如果你对一项现有技术进行了新开发，可能会让公司遭到拥有涉及基础技术专利的所有者起诉。如果一间大公司申请禁令，禁止使用他们的专利技术，这会妨碍到涉及该技术使用的任何新进展。如果你的公司依赖这些现有技术进行新研发，这对公司来说可能是致命的。通过为你的开发申请专利，在上述情况下你可以通过反诉或与大公司协商解决来保护自己。
If your new development of an existing technology, you can leave your company vulnerable to litigation by larger, corporate owners of patents covering the underlying technology. If a large proprietor seeks an injunction to prevent the use of their patented technology, this will also block the use of any new developments of the technology, which could be fatal if your company relies on such existing technology to exploit your own new developments. By patenting your developments, you have some means to defend in such a situation, by counter-suing and negotiating a settlement with a large company.