April 26th is World Intellectual Property Day, and the theme for this year is to “Innovate for a Green Future”. Shougang Group attaches great importance to intellectual property work, adheres to green development, actively puts innovative development concepts into practice, is committed to technology and management innovation, and has formed a batch of innovative technologies with independent intellectual property rights that have core competitiveness. Patent output capacity also continues to increase. The quality and quantity of patents have been simultaneously improved, and these efforts continue to bear fruit. To date, Shougang has applied for 8,201 patents, including 4,638 invention patents, and 5,260 national patents have been authorized.

In recent years, Shougang has been awarded the titles of “Beijing Patent Work Advanced Unit” and “National Patent Work Advanced Unit” several times, and is also awarded the title of being one of the first batch of “Beijing Patent Work Intellectual Property Demonstration Units”, “Intellectual Property Application Benchmarking Enterprises” and “National Intellectual Property Demonstration Enterprises”. In the research publication “Chinese Iron and Steel Enterprise Patent Innovation Index (2019)” from August 2018, Shougang is listed as one of the 54 enterprises with the highest patent innovative capability. To date, 3 of Shougang’s patents have won the “China Patent Gold Award”, 14 patents have won the “China Patent Excellence Award”, and 5 patents have won the “Beijing Invention Patent Award”.

After years of of exploration and practice, Shougang’s patent work has been characterized by “industrial chain-oriented innovation chain adjustment and innovation chain-oriented industrial chain layout”. Shougang insists on a combination of patent work and structural adjustment, product upgrading and updating and technological innovation, building an intellectual property working mechanism with creation as the core, application as the orientation, management as the foundation and protection as the basis, and establishing a perfected management system, so as to strengthen its patent information construction and continuously improve its capacity for innovation and competitiveness. Shougang has cultivated and formed a batch of innovative technologies with independent intellectual property rights that have core competitiveness in key products such as automotive sheets, electrical steel, tinplate, pipeline steel, high-strength steel, weathering steel, and a series of major, key technical areas.

Establishing and improving the patent management system. 

By optimizing the patent management system, Shougang Group has established an effective operating mechanism and implemented a multi-level patent management system. The hierarchical patent management network promotes the development of its patent work, which enables a good integration of production R&D and patent management. Patents are managed and controlled by way of a “power list + professional system” framework. By strengthening the construction of patent management systems in new industries, the group promotes Shougang Chengyun and many other units to break through the patent barrier. While further improving and standardizing the patent management work in the iron and steel industry, the group also combs through the legal entities in new industries, strengthens the system construction of each unit, and standardizes the patent management process. Through the organization, management, guidance and training of intellectual property work within new industries, great progress has been made in terms of establishing good intellectual property management in those areas. 

Establishing a patent information management platform and patent database. The group’s collaborative work platform is used to establish a patent application process to realize its patent hierarchical management.

The group continuously carries out patent training to further strengthen employees’ awareness of patent protection and enhance our group’s patent management in various forms. According to the different remits and nature of business in each unit, Shougang Research Institute of Technology has gone back to the grassroots, focused on patent administrators’ teaching, invited patent agents and industry experts to give training sessions and communicate with staff. Large numbers of worker technicians, the technical backbone, R&D and technical management personnel have all received special patent training. Through interactive exchanges, employees are guided towards scientific and technological innovation achievements, such as scientific research or solutions to key problems in their work. This has led to significant results in terms of active patent declarations.

By taking full advantage of the role of patent information, the group’s capacity to mine patents, conduct analysis and carry out early warning work have been continuously enhanced. Shougang pays attention to searching and analysis of patents during all scientific and technological projects, and proposes tailored plans detailing intellectual property protection measures. This is achieve by combining key metallurgical enterprises, key technology patent search and analysis, and domestic and foreign patent strategic analysis of key topics such as automobile sheets, electrical steel and pipeline steel. By combining the “Search and Analysis for Key Metallurgical Enterprises and Key Technology Patents”, “Analysis for Patent Situation of Automotive Cold Rolled Sheet Steel” with automotive steel and other key topics, patent system analysis is conducted, and investigation reports are completed. The technical development process of related products is streamlined, and technicians are provided with the necessary patent analysis reports, thus promote the development of new products.

Carry out targeted work to avoid patent risks and obtain a strategic initiative in market competition. 

Based on a number of early warning analysis reports such as “Analysis of Patent Protection Problems of Aluminum-Si Coated Hot Forming Steel in China” and “Early Warning Analysis of Three-dimensional Garage Patent”, Shougang put forward reasonable possible circumvention measures. This provides an effective reference for the layout, scientific R&D and production line deployment of Shougang’s products.

Shougang will continue to promote the high-quality development of intellectual property work and enhance its capacity for independent innovation, including by vigorously improving the quality of patents; strengthening the cultivation and protection of high-value patents; forming key patent layouts in key core technical areas, exerting patents’ synergistic effects, and promoting the improvement of competitiveness; strengthening intellectual property early warning work and improving the group’s capacity to deal with intellectual property disputes; promoting the systematic construction of the group’s patent management and improving intellectual property operational capability.