Comparative Research On Patent Protection Of Financial Business Methods In China And America

With the growing competition of the world’s financial market, financial products with intellectual property have become important research and development objects of the financial institutions from all over the world. Moreover, every country and institution focuses on the protection of the patent of financial business methods with core technology, although the forms and the approaches of protection are still controversial.More than a decade ago, the patent layout of Citibank in China alerted domestic judicial and administrative departments and also financial institutions, which resulted in certain progress of the protection of domestic patent of financial business methods. However, domestic protection work is still at a low level, compared with that of the developed countries and foreign financial institutions. It is partly because the domestic financial institutions do not pay attention to research and development as well as the protection of the patent of financial business method. Other reasons also include fuzzy definition defined by the judicial department and rigorous examination by the administrative department.Therefore, this paper first study the root causes of the financial business methods through theoretical analysis in order to find the legitimate and reasonable reasons for their existence. Furthermore, data retrieval analysis would be applied to study the conservation status of the domestic financial business method patents. Search and statistical analysis would also be conducted to examine the patent application and authorization of banking, insurance and securities. This paper offers further insight into the history and current status of the protection of financial business method patent in the United States and discusses the attitudes and behavior of judicial departments, administrative departments and financial institutions. It points out that changing and development in form and content of financial innovation is the fundamental reason why it is hard to clarify the definition of financial business methods for the judiciary and administrative departments. At the same time, this article discusses the defect in the protection of the domestic financial business method patents by comparing the banking, typical financial institutions and typical financial business method patent between China and and the United States. Solutions to improve the protection of domestic financial business method patents are proposed from three aspects, including improving laws and regulations, optimizing administrative examinations and implementing enterprise patent strategy. The main conclusions and innovations in this paper are as follows:(1) Summarize the connotation of the financial business method, and make clear definition of it under the new situation.(2) Study the root causes of the financial business methods from the theory of endogenous growth, the theory of transaction costs and the theory of circumvent controls and explore the theoretical basis for patentability of the financial business method.(3) Do retrieving statistics on the domestic patent application and authorization of banking, insurance and securities. Point out the defect in the protection of the domestic financial business method patents in insurance and securities, and focus on the comparative analysis of the patent application and authorization of the domestic banking between financial institutions of China and the United States.(4) Summarize and analyze the process of protection of the financial business method in America. Propose solutions to improve the protection of domestic financial business method patents from three aspects, including improving laws and regulations, optimizing administrative examinations and implementing enterprise patent strategy.(5) Point out the tendency and advantage of the patent strategy of foreign financial institutions through the comparative study on the typical financial business method patent developed by Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Citibank, and make a brief analysis of the tendency and weakness of China’s financial institutions in the research and development of the financial business method patent.