It's time to take stock of the past year and decide on priorities for the year ahead. Some have developed a new product or technology and may have entered new markets, while others are just planning to do so. And there are many of them. According to the World Intellectual Property Organization, сlose to 3.5 million patent applications were made worldwide. The data indicates the intellectual property (IP) activity around the world, the high dynamics of innovation activity and high interest among both innovators and investors.
Record number of patent applications
Global patenting activity soared to new records and this is a leading indicator in the field of intellectual property. Innovators from around the world submitted 3.46 million patent applications, marking a third consecutive year of growth, according to WIPO’s annual World Intellectual Property Indicators (WIPI) report 2023. Over a million more than 10 years ago. China, the US, Japan, Republic of Korea and Germany were the countries with the highest numbers of patent filings.
It’s important to note that once you register your intellectual property in one country, it’s not automatically registered globally. So it is necessary to ensure protection by registering the intellectual property in those countries you are interested according to your business strategy. Just remember it.
Artificial intelligence
Technologies that come under the umbrella of the artificial intelligence (AI ), especially for the HealthTech industry, are growing faster than others. As well as the number of patent applications for relevant developments on the success wave of OpenAI's ChatGPT. By the way, his company received a lot of recognition and high positions in world rankings during the past year.
Meanwhile, the United States, Britain and more than a dozen other countries ink agreement to make AI 'secure by design'. They agreed that companies designing and using AI need to develop and deploy it in a way that keeps customers and the wider public safe from misuse.
New Unitary Patent system
In June 2023, the European Union launched a new unified (unitary) patent system. Unitary Patents make it possible to get patent protection in up to 17 EU Member States (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia and Sweden) by submitting a single request to the EPO, making the procedure simpler and more cost effective for applicants.
At the same time The Unified Patent Court (UPC) is an international court set up by participating EU Member States to deal with the infringement and validity of both Unitary Patents and European patents, putting an end to costly parallel litigation and enhancing legal certainty.
Strategy for Innovative Development of Ukraine – 2030
The Ukrainian government has presented the Global Innovation Vision 2030. The priority in terms of intellectual property is the creation of a regulatory framework that promotes innovation and the protection of IP rights. It is planned to create new electronic systems for filing and managing the registration of IP objects, digitalization of IP services and electronic document using, creating a specialized IP court, simplification of procedures and automatic distribution of cases between members of the appeal chamber, etc. The document will be approved by the government in January 2024 and it will become an official Strategy for Innovative Development of Ukraine until 2030.
The IPSTYLE team led by Maria Ortinskaya has joined the development of changes in terms of intellectual property, having accumulated all our expertise in Ukraine and abroad to stimulate innovation and the development of technologies that solve pressing problems of the present and the future.
EU TM low cost
Ukraine has became a participant in the SME Fund, so Ukrainian enterprises also can receive reimbursement for EU TM registration. A registered trademark is the basis for business, and EU TM opens the European market. This is an opportunity to scale the business, transfer it to the European market with many solvent customers or diversify the business, to launch a successful franchise, etc. Under the terms of the grant, 75% of the administrative fee and additional class fees are returned to the enterprise.
Some recommendations. It is vital for success to check if a trademark is already registered in the EU or one of the EU countries. To avoid the refusal of registration of TM, we recommend that you conduct an informational search for the identity and similarity of your trademark to those registered or submitted for registration. So you can minimize the risks of refusal to register or objections. Thus, your registration budget will be spent most consciously. And based on the search results, it will be possible to adjust your strategy. As an option, if necessary, modify the TM to register for the European market.