發展以專利資訊為基礎之創新設計方法論

Development of an innovative patent-based design methodology

洪永杰(Yung-Chieh Hung)

指導教授 ： 徐業良

元智大學/工程學院/機械工程學系/博士(2007年)

摘要

在進行產品開發的過程中，專利侵權已成為企業必須面臨的重要課題之一。設計者在進行產品設計時，常面臨到的是如何迴避競爭者既存之專利。在進行迴避設計的過程中，藉由既存專利進行局部創新常會產生新的設計問題。同時專利侵害判斷法則在此類的設計問題中，相當程度限制了設計者的創新思維，甚至必須犧牲產品的某些功能以避免侵害他人專利。

本研究提出一個以專利資訊為基礎之創新設計方法論，該方法論整合了專利資訊、專利侵害判斷法則、專利迴避設計法與創新設計方法。此方法論的基本構想為藉由既存專利的小幅度設計變動，產生一個能成功迴避原專利且不侵權之新設計概念。

本研究提出之創新設計方法論可分為四個階段，分別為(1)專利分析、(2)以設計矩陣方式表達專利資訊、(3)專利迴避設計演算法與(4)創新問題解決理論。設計者於進行產品設計的過程中，先以專利檢索與分析手法篩選出欲進行迴避之專利，然後將每篇專利以技術功效矩陣表的方式呈現。接著利用設計矩陣的手法將技術功效矩陣表的內容轉換成一可進行運算之數學矩陣。本研究所建立之專利迴避設計演算法將協助設計者利用原專利設計矩陣經由迴避設計運算，產生一個至數個與原專利設計矩陣不侵權之新設計矩陣。最後，創新設計理論將所得之新設計矩陣轉換為實際工程問題並導引設計者獲得可行之設計概念。這個設計程序可使產品開發效率提高，同時降低專利糾紛之可能性並增加產品之可專利性。

關鍵字

迴避設計 ； 創新問題解決理論 ； 專利侵權

並列摘要

Patent infringements have become an important issue for industries when developing products. Designing around existing patents of competitors is a task constantly faced by designers. New design problems, which are often a “local innovation” of an existing patent, are generated during the design around process. The rules of patent infringement judgment present the major constraints to such design problems, and designers may have to sacrifice the performance of the product in order not to infringe on existing patents.

This research proposes a patent-based design process by systematically integrating patent information, the rules of patent infringement judgment, strategies of designing around patents, and the innovation design methodology. The basic idea of the process is to generate a new design concept that is a slight variation of one of the concerned patents but does not infringe with the existing patent.

The patent-based design process developed in this research can be divided into four major stages: (1) patent analysis; (2) design matrix representation; (3) design around algorithm and (4) TRIZ. The designer conducts standard patent analysis to identify the related patents to be designed around. Each patent is then symbolized by a “design matrix” converted from the technology/function matrix of the patent. A design-around algorithm is developed to generate a new design matrix that does not infringe with design matrices of existing patents. Then TRIZ is used to transform the new design matrix back into a real engineering design and to generate feasible design concepts. This design process is to assist enterprises to enhance the efficiency of product development, lower the possibility of patent infringements, and increase the patentability of results of innovation.

並列關鍵字

design around ； TRIZ ； patent infringement

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