Services

1. Intellectual Property Consultation

The Center provides consultation services on intellectual property-related issues (including patents, copyrights, and trademarks) according to user needs.

2. Patent Information Retrieval

The Center retrieves and provides required patent documents based on the client’s needs, including information on legal status, citations, patent strength, patent stability, and related indicators.

3. Pre-application Patent Search

Based on the technical plans, disclosure documents, and other materials provided by the client, the Center conducts searches of domestic and international patent and non-patent literature to identify comparison documents closely related or relevant to the proposed invention (including conflicting applications and priority documents). This helps determine the novelty of the proposed subject matter, enables innovators to better understand existing technologies, avoid existing patent protection scopes, reduces blind applications, and improves the likelihood of patent grant.

4. Patent Analysis in Specific Technical Fields

According to client needs, the Center conducts comprehensive patent landscape analyses of specific technical fields through searches of relevant domestic and international patent literature. The analysis may include patent application trends;the geographic distribution of applications and technology source countries; major players’ patent outputs; technical focus and layout strategies; identification of technology hotspots; white spaces, and core patents; competitive landscape; litigation and opposition patents; as well as potential competitors and collaborators. This provides insights into field development and supports research &Develpment (R&D) direction setting.

5. Patent Monitoring and Early Warning

The Center customizes search strategies based on client needs to conduct dynamic monitoring and early warning for specific patents, technical fields, or innovation entities. Monitoring content includes new patent applications, grants, patent families, changes in legal status (e.g., invalidation, transfer, licensing, litigation), changes in patent strength, and citation dynamics.

6. Patent Infringement Search

The Center conducts searches based on products or technical solutions provided by the client to assess whether they fall within the protection scope of existing granted patents or pending patent applications, thereby identifying potentially infringed patents and supporting freedom-to-operate (FTO) and infringement risk analysis.

7. Patent Competitiveness Analysis

The Center analyzes and evaluates the patent portfolios of designated institutions, teams, or individuals according to client needs. The analysis may include application trends, geographic distribution, technology field distribution, major inventors, patent families, citations, core patents, patent validity, commercialization, and litigation, providing decision-making references.

8. Scientific and Technological Novelty Search

The Center accepts novelty search commissions for various levels and types of research project applications, award applications, achievement appraisal, technical consultation, and project completion, and issues formal novelty search reports.

9. Technology Field Development Trend Analysis

Based on client needs, the Center formulates search strategies, analytical dimensions, and report frameworks for a specific technical field, and analyzes and presents the field’s research development status, major competitors, and overall development trends.

10. Patent Portfolio Planning

According to client needs, the Center conducts patent and non-patent literature searches and analyses for the target technical field to identify technology development routes, patent risk areas, and white spaces. Combined with the client’s technical strengths, the Center proposes patent R&D directions and provides recommendations on patent portfolio layout and application strategies to support decision-making.

11. Researcher Performance Evaluation

Using scientometric methods and authoritative data sources, the Center monitors and analyzes the research outputs (e.g., publications) of designated researchers, and presents visualized analysis and evaluation reports to support management decision-making.

12. Management Decision Support

The Center continuously tracks and collects intellectual property- related information resources of the university. Leveraging the East China Normal University performance database, the Center organizes and statistically analyzes IP-related information and bibliographic data to provide management decision support for IP classification and grading management, patent portfolio planning, cultivation of high-value patents, and technology transfer and commercialization.