1. Http://www.china-pat.com 派特恩 China-Pat Examination of Business Method Applications and Strategies – China View NAPP's 19th Annual Meeting & Conference Saturday July 11th, 2015 Denver, CO Chenyan WU CHINA PAT INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY OFFICE Beijing · Hong Kong · Xi’an

2. 派特恩 China-Pat  In 1996, Citi Bank filed 19 business method related patent applications in China;  In June 2003, two of them were issued;  Since then, the number of business method related patent applications was increased significantly ; Background

3. 派特恩 China-Pat  Before October 2004, patentable subject matter of business method related applications are decided based on · whether it fall under “abstract ideas”; · whether it possesses “three technical elements” (technical problem, technical features and technical effect); Overview of old examination practice

4. 派特恩 China-Pat  Between October 2004 and December 2008, patentable subject matter was examined in a more objective way: Overview of old examination practice

5. 派特恩 China-Pat  After 2009, the Chinese Patent Office provided three ways: · purely based on the background of the specification and common knowledge to decide patentable subject matter (a problem to be solved is not a technical problem); · based on search result to evaluate whether “three technical elements” are all possessed and in turn to decide patentable subject matter; · based on search result to evaluate novelty and inventive step In practice, since there was no search required in the first approach and examiners have bigger discretion on it, the first approach was dominantly used. Overview of old examination practice

6. 派特恩 China-Pat Main hurdles to overcome for invention related to business methods : 1.Patentable subject matter; 2.Novelty; 3.Inventive step; Current Examination Practice

7. 派特恩 China-Pat Current Examination Practice

8. 派特恩 China-Pat  If a claim does not have any technical features, it is business method per se. Example 1: A method for selling insurance on a network, characterized in that, using an insurance business terminal equipment which has an inputting keyboard, an identity card reader, a network connection device and a printing device, and a system server connected to the network to perform insurance sales, the method comprises: S1, specifying a type of insurance and detailed content of the insurance through the inputting keyboard; S2, reading, by the card reader, identity information of a policyholder, processing and saving it; S3, sending, by insurance business terminal equipment, the type of insurance, detailed content of the insurance and identity information of the policyholder to the system server over the network; S4, printing insurance policy.  It is not business method per se Business method Per Se

9. 派特恩 China-Pat  It is the same as non-business-method patent applications;  All the limitations in a claim are considered in novelty analysis; Novelty

10. 派特恩 China-Pat  Contrasted with patent applications in other fields, inventive step analysis for business method related applications has an additional step which is to identify whether the real problem to be solved is a technical problem.  Contrasted with the old examination practice, if the real problem is not a technical problem, the claim is rejected due to lack of inventive step instead of unpatentable subject matter. Inventive Step

11. 派特恩 China-Pat  Example 3: The grain broker management system, comprising: a farmer settlement card, which has a storage unit, for storing first data and encrypted information; a grain broker acceptance terminal equipment is configured to obtain the encrypted information of the farmer settlement card, after verification, to read the first data, and to write a second data into the storage unit of the farmer settlement; a grain purchase data management platform is configured to receive a third data uploaded by the grain broker acceptance terminal equipment. Inventive Step

12. 派特恩 China-Pat Inventive Step  Example 3:  Reference The subject matter of the reference is a diver violation management system, namely, managing drivers and data related driving violation. The difference between example 3 and the reference 1 is that example 3’s subject matter is a grain broker management system, namely, managing grain brokers and data related to grain acquisition. Not a technical problem No contribution to prior art No inventive step

13. 派特恩 China-Pat Inventive Step  Example 4: A method for selling insurance on a network, characterized in that, using an insurance business terminal equipment which has an inputting keyboard, an identity card reader, a network connection device and a printing device, and a system server connected to the network to perform insurance sales, the method comprises: S1, specifying a type of insurance and detailed content of the insurance through the inputting keyboard; S2, reading, by the card reader, identity information of a policyholder, processing and saving it; S3, sending, by insurance business terminal equipment, the type of insurance, detailed content of the insurance and identity information of the policyholder to the system server over the network; S4, printing insurance policy. · The difference between example 4 and the reference is that example 4 uses an inputting device to enter the type of insurance and detailed content of the insurance. In contrast, the reference uses a handwriting input device or a touch screen as an inputting device. · The real problem to be solved is how to input information. It is a technical problem. · Is the difference obvious? Yes. No inventive step.

14. 派特恩 China-Pat Inventive Step  Example 5: A method of determining if a message is spam in a system having a plurality of anti-spam modules comprising the steps of: a) invoking one of the plurality of anti-spam modules; b) receiving a spam confidence level from the one of the plurality of anti-spam modules; c) applying a tuning factor to the spam confidence level to create a tuned spam confidence level, wherein the step of applying a tuning factor to the spam confidence level to comprises using a non-linear confidence level normalization to normalize the spam confidence level, wherein the non-linear confidence level normalization comprises a weighted s-shaped curve ; d) adding the tuned spam confidence level to a summed spam confidence level; e) comparing the summed spam confidence level to at least one threshold; f) if the summed spam confidence level is greater than the at least one threshold, invoking an action associated with the at least one threshold; and g) repeating steps a–f if the summed spam confidence level is less than the at least one threshold, wherein the action includes one of the following: dropping a connection if the summed spam confidence level exceeds a first threshold level of the at least one threshold, returning a non- delivery message to a sender if the summed spam confidence level exceeds a second threshold level of the at least one threshold and is below the first threshold level, and delivering the message to a junk mail folder if the message exceeds a third threshold level of the at least one threshold and is below the second threshold level.

15. 派特恩 China-Pat Inventive Step  Difference 1: applying a tuning factor to the spam confidence level to comprises using a non-linear confidence level normalization to normalize the spam confidence level, wherein the non-linear confidence level normalization comprises a weighted s-shaped curve;  Difference 2:

16. 派特恩 China-Pat Inventive Step  Example 5: Difference 1: the real problem to be solved is to set up and normalize the spam confidence level Not a technical problem. Difference 2: the real problem to be solved is to categorize emails more accurately based on spam confidence level and threshold levels and process them accordingly. It is a technical problem. Not common technical means. It has inventive step.

17. 派特恩 China-Pat Impacts on patent applications  Number of rejections on patentable subject matter will be reduced due to this more objective approach.  In the specification, describe technical problem and technical effect of important features of claims. (it is not only helpful for patentable subject matter determination but also helpful for inventive step argument).  In claims, use technical limitation, such as hardware, “read”, “process”, “save” and “send”, other than just “calculate”.

18. 派特恩 China-Pat Thank You! Skype: chenyan88661 Email: chenyan@china-pat.com China Pat Intellectual Property Office HK PAT IP LIMITED China Pat Xi’an Branch